In this eighth CCSD Disability Information Sheet, we provide more data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey, Cycle 14, 2000. In addition to providing information on the use of various technologies, the GSS 14 also allows us to examine some important workplace differences between persons with and those without disabilities.
Employed persons with disabilities are somewhat more likely to feel that they are "overqualified" for their jobs. In 2000, 27.8% of workers with disabilities reported feeling overqualified, compared with 23.8% of their non-disabled counterparts.1 However, it is important to examine these differences within age groups.
As summarized in Chart 1, young persons generally were more likely to report that they were overqualified for their jobs. In general, workers who were older and therefore more likely to be at a more advanced stage in their careers were less likely to feel that they were overqualified for their jobs. The largest gap between persons with and those without disabilities was among the oldest group of workers, that is, those aged 55 to 64. For this group of workers, 15.7% of those without disabilities reported being overqualified for their job, but 22.8% of their disabled counterparts felt overqualified. This suggests that labour market options and opportunities for older workers with disabilities may be more limited than they are for those without disabilities.
Chart 1
Workers with disabilities are more likely to report having job stress and higher levels of job stress than do workers without disabilities. In the GSS 14, job stress is a composite variable based on "excessive worry or stress" over the following job-related elements:
As summarized in Table 1, 47.8% of workers without disabilities reported not having any job stress as defined above; workers with disabilities were less likely to say they had no job stress (35.5%). Workers with disabilities were twice as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to report high job stress (6.3% compared to 3.2%), and they were also more likely to report medium levels of job stress (30.9% and 22.1%, respectively).
| Table 1: Level of Stress at Work Among Persons with and without Disabilities, Canada, 2000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Persons with disabilities | Persons without disabilities | |
| no stress | 35.5% | 47.8% |
| low stress | 27.3% | 26.9% |
| medium stress | 30.9% | 22.1% |
| high stress | 6.3% | 3.2% |
| Source: Calculations by the Canadian Council on Social Development using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, Cycle 14, 2000 | ||
Workers with disabilities reported the highest levels of job stress (see Table 2). Among female workers with disabilities, 37.9% had either medium or high job stress (31.1% + 6.8%), and among their male counterparts, 36.7% reported medium or high job stress. For workers without disabilities, 25.2% of women and 25.4% of men identified such job stress.
| Table 2: Level of Stress at Work, by Gender, Persons with and without Disabilities, Canada, 2000 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persons with disabilities | Persons without disabilities | |||
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| no stress | 35.8% | 35.2% | 47.9% | 47.7% |
| low stress | 27.5% | 27.0% | 26.8% | 27.1% |
| medium stress | 30.8% | 31.1% | 22.2% | 22.1% |
| high stress | 5.9% | 6.8% | 3.2% | 3.1% |
| Source: Calculations by the Canadian Council on Social Development using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, Cycle 14, 2000 | ||||
One important factor in the higher levels of job stress experienced by persons with disabilities is the fear of job loss. While the majority of all workers said it was very unlikely that they would lose their job in the coming year, there were notable differences in the responses of those with and those without disabilities.
Among workers without disabilities, 77.3% of men and 76.8% of women said that losing their job in the coming year was "very unlikely"; among workers with disabilities, only 71.7% of men and 66.9% of women felt this confident. As well, the perceived likelihood of losing one’s job was greater among workers with disabilities: 19.6% (10.4% + 9.2%) of female workers with disabilities said losing their job was somewhat or very likely, while 17.2% of their male counterparts reported this possibility. Among workers without disabilities, only 12.2% of women and 11.4% of men shared this concern (see Table 3).
| Table 3: Fear of Losing One's Job in the Next Year, by Gender, Persons with and without Disabilities, Canada, 2000 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persons with disabilities | Persons without disabilities | |||
| Fear of Job Loss | Male | Female | Male | Female |
| very likely | 9.8% | 10.4% | 6.4% | 7.3% |
| somewhat likely | 7.4% | 9.2% | 5.0% | 4.9% |
| somewhat unlikely | 11.2% | 13.5% | 11.3% | 11.0% |
| very unlikely | 71.7% | 66.9% | 77.3% | 76.8% |
| Source: Calculations by the Canadian Council on Social Development using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, Cycle 14, 2000 | ||||
The majority of all workers said they had been affected to some degree by the introduction of new technologies in the workplace over the last five years. Workers with disabilities were slightly more likely than workers without disabilities to report that they had not been affected at all by the introduction of new technology into the workplace (33.7% compared with 29.6%).
There were only slight differences in the responses by gender, as summarized in Table 4.
| Have you been affected by the introduction of technology at work over the past 5 years? Persons with and without Disabilities, by Gender, Canada, 2000 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persons with disabilities | Persons without disabilities | |||||
| Overall | Female | Male | Overall | Female | Male | |
| greatly affected | 34.2% | 33.4% | 34.8% | 36.7% | 35.6% | 37.6% |
| somewhat affected | 19.1% | 20.7% | 17.8% | 21.0% | 21.2% | 20.8% |
| hardly affected | 13.0% | 11.8% | 13.9% | 12.7% | 13.2% | 12.3% |
| not at all affected | 33.7% | 34.0% | 33.5% | 29.6% | 30.0% | 29.3% |
| Source: Calculations by the Canadian Council on Social Development using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, Cycle 14, 2000 | ||||||
1There were no clear gender differences in these data: 28.1% of female workers with disabilities and 27.7% of male workers with disabilities reported feeling overqualified for their job. Similarly among their non-disabled counterparts, female workers (23.6%) and male workers (24.0%) were almost equally likely to report being overqualified.
This is the last