Employment characteristics

Self-employment

It is estimated that around 13% of all UK workers and 10% of IT specialists (156,000) were working on a self-employed basis in 2020, and for both groups of workers, there was little difference in the likelihood of being self-employed between those with/without disabilities.

Disabled status and the incidence of self-employment (2020)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

Employees and size of workplace

IT specialists working as employees are, perhaps understandably, more likely than others to be employed within larger workplaces^[2] (i.e. as micro / small sites are less likely to have an in-house function) and whilst just 29% of UK employees as a whole were working in larger sites during 2020 (those with 250 or more staff), a figure of 43% was recorded for IT specialist employees (with/without disabilities).

Disabled status and size of workplace (2020)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

Industry of employment

In 2020, there were approximately 77,000 IT specialists with disabilities working in the IT industry sector - 49% of all IT specialists with disabilities.

The proportion of disabled IT specialists working in IT businesses was marginally above that for IT specialists without disabilities - 47% of whom were working in IT firms during 2020.

Considering levels of representation, the public sector again stands out as having the highest representation of disabled workers in IT positions (15%) whilst banking / finance and manufacturing have the lowest (8% in each case).

Workers with disabilities by occupation and industry (2020)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS
* Five-year average

^[2]The LFS asks individuals about the number of employees at their workplace as opposed to enterprise / organisation as a whole.