State works closely with firms to employ people with disabilities

It's a tough job market out there, but it's a heck of a lot tougher three times tougher, to put a number on it for people with disabilities.

State employment officials increasingly are taking a business-oriented approach to match people with disabilities with job openings.

Even so, it's a tough slog in an economy where job openings are few and job seekers are many.

In its last fiscal year, 901 disabled people statewide landed jobs through the rehabilitation of division of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

That's down from levels of 1,500 to 1,600 placements a year that were common when the state's economy was booming, says Maureen Cole, administrator of the rehabilitation division.

The division increasingly focuses on working directly with the private sector to identify skills that are needed in the workforce, then trains workers with disabilities to meet those needs.

Working with manufacturers, for instance, state officials heard of the growing need for workers with skills to operate computer-controlled cutting equipment.

The rehabilitation division identified some disabled people with promise, put them through training and got the trained workers in front of employers.

"All of them are working now because there was such a demand," says Cole.

State officials also are working with business groups in sectors ranging from mining to hospitality to get workers with disabilities trained to fill existing demand.

"Vocational rehabilitation has been seen a social service as opposed to a business service," says Cole.

She's working to change that.

Ken Pierson, a longtime business executive and economic-development official in northern Nevada, joined the rehabilitation division's staff this year and is working with employers one by one to get people with disabilities into jobs.

His pitch: People with disabilities are good and loyal workers. The accommodations that employers need to make are often minimal and inexpensive. Tax credits may be available.

In some instance, the state agency provides on-the-job training or a job coach.

Says Cole, "We're not asking employers to do an act of charity. This is a wise business decision."

Still, she acknowledges that the division's staff is challenged by commonplace perceptions of employers that it's difficult or expensive to hire people with disabilities.

But in many instances, she says, employers already are hiring people with some disability - particularly among older workers without giving it a second thought. And employers already are making modest accommodations to meet the needs of those workers.

"It seems more complex in theory than it is in reality," Cole says.

Still, the business of finding jobs for workers with a disability remains a tough, one-job-at-a-time process.

"We try to work one-on-one with employers," says Cole. "We know we have to find the right person for the right job."

The division is all the more cautious, she says, because its staff knows that an employer who has a bad experience is likely to be reluctant to hire workers with disabilities in the future.

But the demand for jobs is great. The rehabilitation division currently has about 6,000 open cases, and it's bringing about 3,000 a year into its system.

Those workers range from folks with doctorate-level education to people with developmental disabilities. Among the larger pools of skilled workers looking for work, Cole says, are people looking for clerical, hospitality, retail and warehousing positions.

National figures, Cole says, indicate that unemployment and underemployment among people with disabilities runs about three times higher than among the workforce at large. That would translate into unemployment of well over 30 percent among workers with disabilities in Nevada.

Add in the number of underemployed workers, or discouraged workers who have given up the search, and the figure is close to 50 percent for workers with disabilities.

Employers who want to work with the rehabilitation division to find workers often start with a visit to JobConnect offices, where vocational rehabilitation specialists are available to begin the process.

The federal government provides about 80 percent of the rehabilitation division's $18 million budget. The state's taxpayers cover the rest.