Washington, D.C., March 12 – 23,953 Floridians with disabilities entered the workforce last year, part of a national trend of jobs gained among people with disabilities.
According to the newly published 2018 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium shows Florida has a 34.1 disability employment rate. Florida now ranks 39th in the nation for employing people with disabilities. In total, 428,638 of the 1,258,361 working-age (18-64) Floridians with disabilities have jobs.
Among newly sworn-in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ first actions as Governor was to reappoint Barbara Palmer as the leader of the state’s Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The Agency, which “works with local communities and private providers to assist” Floridians with disabilities, was first created back in 2004. Palmer has systematically broken down silos and bridged gaps across the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
The continuing success of job seekers with disabilities finding jobs in Florida’s economy reflects the critical policies and programs supported by DeSantis’ predecessor, the newly elected Senator Rick Scott. When Sen. Scott was Governor, he made serious budgetary commitments to reduce wait lists for services as well as “funding to provide job coaches and internships to additional people with disabilities will help them compete in the job market.”