Data Spotlight: Employment of Women with Disabilities in Skilled Trade Professions

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• By: Alexandra Ruth, David Rosenblum • March 21, 2023

How many women with disabilities are working in skilled trade positions?

As we’ve stated before, a core goal of the Biden Administration’s Good Jobs Initiative is to increase equitable pathways to good jobs in infrastructure for underrepresented groups, including women, people of color and individuals with disabilities. Supporting this goal requires an understanding of these groups’ representation in skilled trade professions, which are critical to infrastructure work.

In this spirit, we analyzed Census data on women with disabilities working in skilled trade professions and compared them to those of men with disabilities working in skilled trades. For background purposes, skilled trade jobs include the following major occupation groups:

Farming, Fishing and Forestry
Construction and Extraction
Installation, Maintenance and Repair
Production
Transportation and Material Moving

As with our previous analysis, which focused on the Employment of Black Workers with Disabilities in Skilled Trade Professions, these data were extracted from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2017 through 2021. The industry codes are derived from the Standard Occupational Classification System, which is a federal statistical standard used to group workers into different occupations based on job titles.

How many women with disabilities are working in skilled trades?

Among disabled women in the workforce, 10.2% (approximately 455,000) are working in skilled trade professions. Larger percentages of disabled and non-disabled men are working in skilled trades compared to disabled and non-disabled women. For both men and women, a slightly higher percentage of workers with disabilities are working in skilled trades compared to those without disabilities.

A bar chart titled “Percent of All Workers Employed in Skilled Trades, by Gender and Disability Status.” — The bar chart shows percentages of workers in different groups who are working in skilled trades. 10.2% of all women with disabilities in the workforce are working in skilled trades versus 7.4% of women without disabilities in the workforce. 38.8% of employed men with disabilities are working in skilled trades versus 34.5% of employed men without disabilities.

What categories of skilled trades professions are most common among women with disabilities?

Most women with disabilities working in skilled trades are working in Transportation (47%) and Production (43%). Most men with disabilities working in skilled trades are working in Transportation (36%) and Construction/Extraction/Agriculture (25%).

A pie chart titled “Women with Disabilities Working in Skilled Trades, by Trade Category.” — The pie chart shows that most disabled women in skilled trades are working in Transportation (47%) and Production (43%). The least most common categories are Construction/Extraction/Agriculture (7%) and Repair/Installation/Maintenance (3%).

A pie chart titled “Men with Disabilities Working in Skilled Trades, by Trade Category.” A description follows. — The pie chart shows that most disabled men in skilled trades are working in Transportation (36%) and Construction/Extraction/Agriculture (25%), followed by Production (23%) and Repair/Installation/Maintenance (16%).

What types of disabilities are common for disabled women working in skilled trades?

Most women with disabilities working in skilled trades report having multiple disabilities (31.3%). Of women with disabilities working in skilled trades who report only one disability, the most common is ambulatory difficulties (19.9%). In contrast, for men with disabilities working in skilled trades, the most commonly reported disability is hearing loss only (27.7%).

A bar chart titled “Percent of Workers with Disabilities in Skilled Trades Reporting Different Types of Disabilities, by Gender.” — The bar chart shows that most women with disabilities working in skilled trades report having multiple disabilities. The next most reported disability for women working in skilled trades is ambulatory difficulties only. In contrast, the most reported disability for men with disabilities working in skilled trades is hearing difficulties only, followed by men who report having multiple disabilities.

What is the age distribution for disabled women working in skilled trades compared to disabled men working in skilled trades?

Most disabled women working in skilled trades are ages 55-64. Combined across all age groups, disabled men working in skilled trades outnumber disabled women working in skilled trades by a ratio of more than four to one.

A bar chart titled “Workers with Disabilities in Skilled Trades, by Age and Gender.” — The bar chart shows that, for both men and women with disabilities working in skilled trades, the largest number of workers are between the ages of 55-64. Across all age categories, more men than women with disabilities are working in skilled trades.

What industry categories are most common for women with disabilities working in trades?

A detailed look at the distribution of trade professions across different industries using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) shows that most women with disabilities working in trades are working in the Manufacturing, Trade and Services industries.

A tree chart titled “Women with Disabilities Employed in Trade Industries, by NAICS Categories.” — This tree chart shows that, according to the NAICS industry classification categories, 149,000 women with disabilities are employed in the manufacturing industry, followed by 111,000 in trade, 106,000 in all other services, 60,000 in transportation and 29,000 in other goods-producing industries.

How do wages compare for disabled women versus non-disabled women working in skilled trades and non-trade professions?

Disabled women earn less than non-disabled women in both skilled trades and non-trade professions; however, this gap is slightly narrower for trade professions compared to non-trade professions. Note: These data include employees who are full-time (usually worked at least 35 hours per week), worked at least 50 weeks in the last year and have positive earnings.

A bar chart titled “Mean Annual Wages for Women in Skilled Trades and Non-Trade Professions, by Disability Status.” — The bar chart shows that there are wage gaps between disabled women and non-disabled women in all job categories, including those in both skilled trades and non-trade professions. The smallest wage gap exists for the trade category of repair/installation/maintenance. The largest wage gap exists in the non-trade category of management/professional jobs.

How do wages compare for women versus men with disabilities working in skilled trades and non-trade professions?

Across all job categories of both skilled trades and non-trade professions, disabled men earn more than disabled women. These wage gaps are slightly larger than those noted previously between disabled women versus non-disabled women. Note: These data include employees who are full-time (usually worked at least 35 hours per week), worked at least 50 weeks in the last year and have positive earnings.

A bar chart titled “Mean Annual Wages for Workers with Disabilities in Skilled Trades and Non-Trade Professions, by Gender and Job Category.” — This bar chart shows that there are wage gaps between disabled women and disabled men in all job categories, including those in both skilled trades and non-trade professions. The smallest wage gap exists for the trade category of repair/installation/maintenance. The largest wage gap exists in the non-trade category of management/professional jobs. The wage gaps shown here between disabled women and disabled men are substantially larger than those shown previously for disabled women versus non-disabled women.

David Rosenblum is a senior economist and Alexandra Ruth is a data scientist in the department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. 

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