Employment Opportunities for Young People with Disabilities: A Factorial Survey on Hiring Intentions of Recruiters

Entering and getting established in work life is a particular challenge for young people with disabilities, which is reflected in their low participation in the competitive labour market (OECD, 2022). Disability at a young age is associated with low educational attainment, which is a key reason for a difficult school-to-work transition (Yoder & Cantrell, 2019). However, experimental research has shown that, even when the educational requirements of a position are met, disclosing a disability significantly reduces the chances of being hired (e.g. Bjørnshagen & Ugreninov, 2021). Still, the reduced chances of getting a job vary according to the type of disability, with intellectual disabilities generally being viewed less favourably than physical disabilities (Berre, 2023). Support measures put in place by governments to encourage employment of people with disabilities are controversial in their effectiveness (Baert, 2016; Shamshiri-Petersen & Krogh, 2020). This ongoing study presents quantitative results of a factorial survey experiment embedded in a questionnaire administered to recruiters in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Recruiters are asked to evaluate the chances of young job applicants presented to them in short descriptions (vignettes) that are experimentally varied on several characteristics, including disability, government support as an incentive, and educational level. This study will provide insights on the hiring intentions of recruiters towards young people with different types of disability. Awaiting forthcoming results, we expect to find more reluctance to hire young people with learning difficulties and mental illness than with physical disabilities, despite matching educational requirements. However, we also expect that the negative signalling effect of a lower mismatch in the required level of education, including non-recognised qualifications, is disadvantageous regardless of the disability signal. The impact of different country- specific incentives is expected to be small, but still different depending on the type of disability.