Australia’s first State of the Nation Report on Disability Employment
Australia has an clear opportunity to improve workforce participation and productivity by removing the barriers that prevent people with disability from accessing good work.
On 10 November, 2026, Disability Employment Investments (DEInvestments) will launch the inaugural State of the Nation Report on Disability Employment, establishing a national evidence base for understanding where Australia is today and tracking progress over time.
Developed by DEInvestments in partnership with Deloitte Access Economics and Wallis Social Research, the report brings together national data, new research with employers and workers, and lived experience to provide a whole of system view of disability employment in Australia.
A significant opportunity for Australia
Australia has made progress.
Today, 1.5 million working age Australians with disability are employed. But the report identifies a further 892,000 working age Australians with disability who face barriers to work and are not employed.
At the same time, employers across Australia continue to face workforce and skills pressures.
The State of the Nation reframes this challenge as an opportunity: what would be possible if we removed the barriers preventing more people with disability from contributing their skills and experience to Australia’s workforce?
Importantly, the evidence suggests disability employment is not simply a social outcome. It can also deliver value for employers.
Among surveyed employers already employing people with disability, 75% recognise benefits and 55% report commercial benefits. Employers with direct experience of disability employment are also more likely to see the benefits and believe that potential risks and complexity can be managed.
Moving the focus to employers and workplaces
For DEInvestments, one of the most important findings is that employment outcomes cannot be understood by looking only at the individual.
Workplace conditions, recruitment practices, job design, accessibility, flexibility and employer attitudes all influence whether someone has the opportunity to work and succeed.
This is reflected in the research. 56% of surveyed respondents with disability identified difficulty finding employers willing to hire them.
The findings reinforce the importance of building employer capability, not simply preparing people with disability for employment.
Good intentions alone are also not enough. While many employers report understanding how to support disability employment, fewer have embedded this into organisational systems, accountability and measurement.
Good jobs matter too
The State of the Nation looks beyond whether someone has a job.
Job quality matters.
Workers with disability who experience barriers to employment also report poorer outcomes across earnings, opportunities and aspects of their workplace experience.
Increasing workforce participation therefore needs to go hand in hand with creating secure, rewarding work where people with disability are respected, their skills are valued and there are opportunities to develop and progress.
A framework for measuring change
The State of the Nation provides an annual national accounting of Australia’s disability employment status.
It considers four interconnected pillars within Australia’s broader economic context:
Workforce Participation
Job Quality
Employer Engagement and Capability
Employee Motivation and Experience
The inaugural report draws on national datasets, surveys of 1,289 employers and 5,145 workers, and lived experience focus groups.
More importantly, it establishes a framework that can be used over time by governments, organisations and the broader disability employment system to understand whether Australia is actually making progress.
Previous information published about the research confirms that the intention is to establish a national benchmark that enables Australia to monitor changes over time, identify emerging trends and understand what is working.
Creating a sustained national conversation
The State of the Nation is not intended to be a report that sits on a shelf.
It is designed to support an ongoing national conversation about disability employment involving people with disability, employers, governments, service providers, researchers and the broader community.
For DEInvestments, the ambition is simple: use better evidence to drive better decisions, strengthen employer demand and accelerate progress towards a labour market where people with disability have greater access to good jobs.
The inaugural State of the Nation Report on Disability Employment launched 10 November 2026.
With thanks to our contributors
The State of the Nation has been made possible through the expertise, research, data and lived experience contributed by organisations across disability employment, research and business.
-Australian Disability Network
-Disability Employment Australia
-Employment Hero
-National Disability Services
-Down Syndrome Australia
-Centre for Inclusive Employment
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