The association of disability status with job tenure for U.S. workers

Job tenure is a useful economic indicator. To employees, longer job tenure creates higher rewards in pay, promotion opportunities, and job security. For employers, there are fewer costs in recruitment and retraining when job turnover is low. Marginalized populations, such as persons with disabilities, may find work in various economies, but retention is more difficult. They are often the first to be laid off in struggling economies.

The purpose of this study is to highlight differences in individual and employment-related factors associated with job tenure for American workers with and without disabilities.

Using newly available survey data (N = 1,538), OLS regression is used to estimate job tenure for workers with and without disabilities, controlling for worker sociodemographic characteristics, a job quality index, and job characteristics. All disability types are examined.

Multivariate results show that workers with disabilities have shorter job tenure than others when controlling for job quality, individual characteristics and job characteristics.

Employees with disabilities have shorter job tenure than those without. Given the benefits of lengthened job tenure, further efforts should be made to explore this issue and to develop effective strategies that help those with disabilities retain jobs long term.