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Deaf People at WorkSchein and Delk(1974) have carried out the largest study to date in their Census of the American deaf population; Jackson(1986) presents the largest study (in number of participants) in the UK and Kyle and Woll(1985) (set book) summarise some of the key points of earlier studies in Britain. The most common observation on employment is that people are "underemployed rather than unemployed." Deaf people are likely to obtain poorer jobs than other groups. Here are some of the figures. The first set of figures are taken from the interview study of 175 deaf people in the County of Avon (Kyle and Allsop, 1982). In 1980-82 the majority of deaf people in the deaf community worked in a factory - nearly 50% of all those in work. About one in 6 is an office worker and the same number are tradesmen - skilled workers. Almost as many are cleaners. This means that a very large group are either in unskilled or semiskilled areas - 46%. None of the people are in professional occupations. You can compare this to figures in the main population where 21% are semi-skilled and unskilled and 21% are professional. Deaf people are squeezed into the worst jobs. There is also an age difference - younger deaf people are more likely to be in offices than the older ones. Kyle and Allsop (1982) report unemployment at 8.6%, and Kyle and Pullen(1985) at 15%(among 23 year-olds). General adult unemployment in the UK varies from 8% to 15%. In terms of type of job, there is confirmation in all studies of the under-employment. Deaf people generally have jobs in the unskilled and semi-skilled occupations(Kyle and Pullen, 1985 - 62%). Very few are found in Social Class I (Professional/Managerial) - generally less than 3%. Kyle and Allsop (1982) found that very few Deaf people ever reached a position of supervision over others and the prospects for promotion were very bleak for most. We have looked at the same figures in our second survey of young deaf people in employment (Kyle and Pullen, 1995). In this, the picture is worse if anything. We have many more deaf people in poor jobs - 62% but we do have some who are in professional jobs. Remember that this survey includes the people who have been to Mary Hare Grammar School. If we look at the figures for other countries the same pattern shows up. In the USA and in Australia the same findings occur. |
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