The Type of Jobs People Do: How Disability Interacts with Gender, Race, and Ethnicity to Shape Occupational Outcomes

This study investigates how the compounded effects of disability status, gender, race, and ethnicity shape occupational outcomes. Using the 2018–2023 five-year public-use file of the American Community Survey, we estimate the weighted employment prevalence across 22 occupational categories for 16 disability-gender-race/ethnicity subgroups. Our results show that workers with disabilities are more likely to be employed in low-skilled occupations than workers without disabilities. From an intersectional perspective, women with disabilities are more likely to be concentrated in female-dominated, lower-skilled occupations than men with disabilities, whereas men with disabilities are more likely to be represented in traditionally male-dominated occupations. Regardless of gender, Non-Hispanic (NH) White and NH Other workers with disabilities are more likely to be employed in higher-skilled occupations than NH Black and Hispanic workers with disabilities. Our findings demonstrate that occupational segregation among people with disabilities operates partly through the compounded effects of disability, gender, and race/ethnicity, allowing some workers with disabilities greater career mobility while segregating others into low-status jobs and further perpetuating inequality. Further research is needed to examine the extent to which educational attainment contributes to occupational segregation among people with disabilities.