Employees with disabilities have a median job tenure that generally matches what would be expected given their age, gender and sector, but tenure is lower than expected for some disability types and for non-episodic or more severe disabilities, according to a new Statistics Canada study released Sept. 24.
The analysis, authored by Jenny Watt, links the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability to the Canadian Employer–Employee Dynamics Database to estimate how long employees stay with the same employer. It uses a decomposition method to compare observed tenure with “expected” tenure based on the characteristics of employees without disabilities, according to the study.
How tenure was measured
The study defines job tenure as the number of tax years an employee received a T4 from their main employer in 2022. Because the linked database extends back to 2001, tenure is reported as medians and distributions rather than means. Results are presented for employees aged 25 to 64, and self-employment is not captured, according to the study.
Overall results
Overall, employees with disabilities had higher observed median tenure than those without disabilities, but the difference reflects age and industry mix, Statistics Canada said. After adjusting for age, gender and sector, overall tenure for employees with disabilities aligns with expectations.
- Overall median tenure: 6.29 tax years for employees with disabilities vs. 5.70 for those without.
- By age 25–34: 2.77 vs. 3.12 (lower for employees with disabilities).
- By age 35–44: 6.15 vs. 5.52 (higher for employees with disabilities).
Differences by disability type
Observed median tenure varies across disability types. Compared with employees without disabilities, median tenure is significantly lower for developmental, learning and mental health-related disabilities, and significantly higher for dexterity, mobility, flexibility, seeing, pain-related and hearing disabilities, according to the study.
When comparing observed tenure to the “expected” tenure based on characteristics, tenure is significantly lower than expected for employees with dexterity, mobility, memory, flexibility, mental health-related or pain-related disabilities. Differences for other disability types are not significant.
Episodic and severity effects
Employees with episodic disabilities have higher-than-expected median tenure given their age, gender and sector, the study found. For employees with non-episodic disabilities, median tenure is significantly lower than expected.
Tenure for employees with less severe disabilities is about in line with expectations, while it is significantly shorter than expected for those with more severe disabilities, according to the study.
Distribution of tenure
To assess job mobility, the study grouped tenure into four bands. Employees with disabilities had one-year tenure more often than expected and six to nine years less often than expected; they were about as likely as expected to have two to five years or 10 or more years of tenure. The study said it did not find evidence that lower mobility generally produces longer-than-desired tenure among employees with disabilities.
