A recent study conducted a survey involving 300 disabled employees and employers to explore their work experiences, aiming to address two persistent issues: the elevated unemployment rate among disabled individuals in New Zealand and the skills shortage.
The research found that interviews are particularly challenging for disabled job seekers.
“For example, people would just be asked point-blank about their disability, which is not an appropriate question to ask in the workplace. What would be appropriate is asking, ‘Hey, what support do you need to do this role?” lead researcher Grace Stratton stated.
Many job seekers also expressed that they felt discriminated against from the very beginning of the hiring process.
“They would turn up to the interview, and they would just get a look from the person, and they would know from the jump that they were not going to get the job,” Stratton said.
“Like it was just in the person’s body language in the way that they received the person. There was an ingrained belief that it just wasn’t going to be possible,” she added.
One company participating in the research is a scaffolding yard located in Hamilton.
Nicky Forsyth employs her son Jack and his friends for two days each week at Industrial Site Services to service the fittings.
Nicky Forsyth was motivated to take action after a work broker failed to secure Jack a job, which she described as having “knocked his confidence a little bit.”
“If it wasn’t these three guys with disabilities, then we would have brought somebody else in to do the job because it has to be done. So yeah, it is meaningful,” Nicky Forsyth told 1News.
It is anticipated that by the year 2028, several sectors in New Zealand are expected to face labour shortages:
- Engineering: An additional 16,930 workers will be needed.
- Manufacturing: A further 23,323 workers will be required.
- Logistics: There will be a demand for 17,897 more workers.
Meanwhile, 11% of the disabled workforce is unemployed, which is more than double the unemployment rate for non-disabled individuals. These numbers suggest an untapped potential within the disabled community and that efforts are needed to improve employment opportunities and support for these individuals.
“The economic potential of employing more people with disabilities is huge, and purely from an economic point of view, we’d be silly not to really consider our employment strategies,” Hanga-Aro-Rau Workforce Development Council deputy chief executive Samantha McNaughton said.
McNaughton also emphasised how employers should modify their behaviours.
“If it was easy, it would’ve been done, so we know that. But I think it’s about, in general, how we upskill and educate our employers to really think beyond their traditional recruitment ways,” she said.