Employment of young people with disabilities in the EU

Young persons with disabilities face many difficulties on the labour market. They are significantly less attached to the labour market, despite expressing a stronger willingness to work than their counterparts without disabilities. Moreover, persons with disabilities face more precarious working conditions. While they enjoy slightly more flexible arrangements, they also work under fixed-term contracts more often and report greater dissatisfaction with their hours. Efforts to reduce precarious employment and support flexible working arrangements can improve retention and satisfaction among employed persons with disabilities. These problems relate to lower participation in education, higher drop-out rates and lower educational attainment of young persons with disabilities. This education gap is estimated to explain 27% of the disability employment gap for that age group (Albinowski, Magda & Rozszczypała, 2025). Reducing early school leaving among young people with disabilities is critical. The skills and education of young persons with disabilities are also more often mismatched with actual job requirements. Better alignment between qualifications and labour market needs can improve employment prospects, particularly for those who feel under-qualified. The NEET rate for young persons with disabilities in the EU is also high, with a large variation among countries. The highest risk factors for being NEET are being male, having less than a tertiary education, leaving education early, and not having studied in STEM fields. Expanding access and completion rates in higher education and STEM fields would significantly reduce both employment and NEET gaps.