Employment characteristics

Self-employment

It is estimated that around 12% of all UK workers and 13% of IT specialists (126,000) were working on a self-employed basis in 2021, and for both groups of workers, there was no difference in the likelihood of being self-employed between those with / without disabilities.

Disabled status and the incidence of self-employment (2021)

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 2021 (those with 250 or more staff), a figure of 44% was recorded for IT specialist employees (with / without disabilities).

Disabled status and size of workplace (2021)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

Industry of employment

In 2021, there were approximately 73,000 IT specialists with disabilities working in the IT industry sector - 34% of all IT specialists with disabilities.

The proportion of disabled IT specialists working in IT businesses was below that for IT specialists without disabilities – 39% of which were working in IT firms during 2021. After IT, the next largest employers of IT specialists were banking / finance (22% and 24% of IT with / without disabilities) and the public sector (17% and 15%).

Considering levels of representation, transport/communications stood out as having the highest representation of disabled workers in IT positions (22%) whilst construction had the lowest (9%).

Workers with disabilities by occupation and industry (2021)

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

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