Employment characteristics

Self-employment

It is estimated that around 12% of all UK workers and 6% of IT specialists were working on a self-employed basis in 2023, and amongst IT specialists at least, there was a notable difference in the likelihood of being self-employed between those with/ without disabilities (10% versus 6%).

Disabled status and the incidence of self-employment (2023)

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 31% of UK employees as a whole were working in larger sites during 2023 (those with 250 or more staff), a figure of 42% was recorded for IT specialist employees as a whole and 46% amongst those with disabilities.

Disabled status and size of workplace (2023)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

Industry of employment

In 2023, there were approximately 114,000 IT specialists with disabilities working in the IT industry sector - 42% of all IT specialists with disabilities.

The proportion of disabled IT specialists working in IT businesses was marginally above that of IT specialists without disabilities – 43% of which were working in IT firms during 2023.

After IT, the next largest employers of IT specialists were banking/ finance (19% and 24% of IT specialists with/without disabilities) and the public sector (17% and 14%).

Considering levels of representation, transport/communications stands out as having had the highest representation of disabled workers in IT positions (22%) whilst construction and other services had the lowest (10% in each case).

Workers with disabilities by occupation and industry (2023)

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.