Barriers to employment among unemployed drug users: age predicts severity

Drug users in treatment or exiting treatment face many barriers to employment when entering the job market, such as low levels of education and technical skills, and low levels of interpersonal skills. As a result of these and other barriers, employment rates in these groups are generally low.

This article examines the existence and possible predictors of specific barriers to employment related to interpersonal and technical skills in a sample of participants enrolled in a therapeutic workplace intervention for substance abuse.

In Study I (N = 77), we characterized and examined predictors of participant scores on a staff-rated scale of interpersonal skills (Work Behavior Inventory). In Study II (N = 29), we examined whether participants had lower levels of computer knowledge than job seekers in the general population, and investigated possible predictors of computer knowledge in the sample.

In general, participants in Study I displayed low levels of interpersonal skills, and participants in Study II scored lower on the computer knowledge test than job seekers in the general population. Older participants tended to have lower levels of interpersonal skills and lower levels of computer knowledge.

These results suggest that providers of workforce development services for drug users in treatment or exiting treatment should attend to these specific barriers to employment, which may also be more pronounced among older clients.