Month: March 2019

Washington, D.C., March 7 – During the 2019 National Governors’ Association winter meeting, newly elected Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker vowed to make people with disabilities “one of the priorities” as he rebuilds his state’s policies and programs.

Speaking of the budgetary challenges created by his predecessor, Pritzker said, “services and programs, including some employment programs…just got wiped out.” He emphasized the need to “rebuild these services, many of the opportunities” that people with disabilities were using to enter Illinois’ economy.

In terms of making his state more inclusive of people with disabilities, Pritzker added, “You have to think of it as an entrepreneurial endeavor in the nonprofit world.”

The newly published 2018 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium shows there are 691,453 working-age people (ages 18-64) with disabilities living in Illinois. Out of that number, 263,464 Illinoisans with disabilities have jobs. That means the Prairie State has a disability employment rate of 38.1 percent. Further analysis by the nonpartisan advocacy group RespectAbility shows that Illinois ranks 25th out of the 50 states for disability employment. Census Bureau data also shows that Illinois saw the second biggest job gains for people with disabilities with more than 20,000 new jobs even as 50,000 people without disabilities left Illinois’ workforce.

Washington, D.C., March 7 –During the 2019 National Governors’ Association (NGA) winter meeting, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey spoke about his commitment to serve “the entire disability community.” In New Jersey, he added, “we rise or fall as one family.”

Gov. Murphy pointed to his own cabinet, which includes a newly created Office of the Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families, as a testament to his commitment to serve New Jerseyans with disabilities and vowed, “we’ve got a lot of elements in our budget” that will positively impact people with disabilities.

The newly published 2018 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium shows there are 428,932 working-age (ages 18-64) people with disabilities living in New Jersey. Out of that number, only 161,729 have jobs. That means the Garden State has a 37.7 disability employment rate. Further analysis by the nonpartisan advocacy group RespectAbility shows that New Jersey ranks 28th out of the 50 states for disability employment. More than 2,100 people with disabilities entered New Jersey’s workforce last year.