Employment
St. Louis has more than 2.6 million people, making it the 18th largest metropolitan area (US Census, 2000). In 2004, 5.6% of St. Louis's labor force was unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics). In the city of St. Louis, unemployment rates were as high as 10% (MERIC, 2002). However, St Louis has experienced an increase in jobs in the last six months, with an employment growth rate of over 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. This rate places St. Louis as having almost double the national rate of job increases of all major cities (RCGA, 2004).
In the St. Louis region, the number of individuals with one or more disabilities is approximately 225,840 or 16.6% of the population. While unemployment of the general population is low, only 31.4% of Americans with severe disabilities are employed (USBLN, 2001). Many people with disabilities consider themselves as unable to work. In fact, the proportion of people with a disability who state that they are unable to work increased from 44.6% in 1996 to 47.8% in 2000 (Kaye, 2003). In the City of St. Louis there are over 18,300 beneficiaries of SSDI and/or SSI, which is 5.25% of the population. In St. Louis County, the number of beneficiaries is over 36,000 or 3.54% of the population (SSA, 2002).
For people with mental illnesses, the percentage of unemployment is even worse (McNeil, 1997). According to the President's New Freedom Commission, unemployment rates for adults with mental illness are a shocking 60% (2003). In fact, mental health was ranked third in the reasons for people's inability to work from 1988-1996. The number of people with mental illness that were unable to work doubled from 498,000 in 1988 to 973,000 in 1996. A vast majority of people with schizophrenia consider themselves unable to work (Kaye, 2003). Within the public mental health system, only 1.6 percent of those with serious mental illnesses are clients of the state/federal vocational rehabilitation system (Baron & Granger, 1997), and even fewer are clients of the One-Stop System.
The state Vocational Rehabilitation agency (DVR) has implemented an Order of Selection where only the most significantly disabled applicants, known as Category 1, are served. All others are waitlisted. Currently, there are over 2,800 people on the waiting list with approximately 700 in St. Louis (VR, 2002). Despite low participation in the labor market, people with disabilities' desire to work has consistently been documented through needs assessments across the nation as well as in our own agencies. Estimates of 60-87 percent of people with mental illnesses describe meaningful work as a goal and a need, particularly employment that leads to a career, rather than dead-end minimum wage jobs (Cook & Jonikas, 1997).
Employment rates for people with disabilities who state that they are able to work have increased significantly since the ADA began, and retention of people with disabilities has improved (Kaye, 2003). Transitional employment and supported employment services designed for this population have been successful in helping approximately 50 percent of those served to achieve employment (Baron & Granger, 1997; Bond et al., 1997).
