Où sont les freins à l’emploi ? Inactivité et chômage parmi les personnes avec une déficience de survenue précoce

The under-representation of persons with disabilities in employment is documented. However, the restrictions for persons with disabilities to accessing paid work are not well known in their variations by type of impairment. Moreover, they are likely to be confused with job exits because of work-related impairments. Using the 2011 Employment Survey and its ad hoc module, this article identifies factors and processes contributing to inactivity, unemployment, or their co-presence, for people aged 15–64 living in households in metropolitan France and having an impairment that occurred before the end of their initial training. Depending on the type and degree of impairment, multifactorial disabling mechanisms occur at varying stages, drawing three “out-of-employment patterns”: inactivity for people with cognitive impairment or mild mental health impairment, unemployment for people with severe visual impairment or moderate mobility impairment, and coexistence of both for people with severe mobility impairment or severe mental health impairment. Moreover, the administrative recognitions of disabilities have nuanced effects (depending on which rights are associated) and the benefits of diplomas are heterogeneous according to the subgroups.