Sunday, October 7, 2018

Disabled Going Back to Work

10/5/18 Washington Examiner:
Disabled Americans are going back to work at a better pace than those with no disabilities, another sign that the Trump economy is opening up the job market.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report released Friday said that a higher ratio of those with disabilities gained jobs than those without them
“The employment-to-population ratio for working-age people with disabilities increased from 30.4 percent in September 2017 to 31.4 percent in September 2018 (up 3.3 percent or 1 percentage point). For working-age people without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio also increased from 73.8 percent in September 2017 to 74.0 percent in September 2018 (up 0.3 percent or 0.2 percentage points),” said BLS.
I thought they were disabled!  I think I blogged a while back (or just thought it very loudly so you should have heard it) that many of the older people going on disability were likely depressed that they were over 40 and employers therefore classed them as "senile."  I do not mean that these aged people engaged in fraud.  If you are sufficiently depressed, you really cannot work.

There has been a burst of hiring going on.  I get frequent inquiries about positions.  If I had some confidence that my brain would work reliably again as a software engineer, it would be tempting.  Teaching I could perhaps do full-time.  It would reduce my disability check, but by the amount that I earn working, with no loss of Medicare.  The advantage is that I could again contribute to Social Security, perhaps increasing my retirement check at retirement age (but I am already only $6 per month from the maximum amount you can get).  A full-time job, however, would give health insurance for my wife.  Maybe I will see if teaching two classes a semester is possible, to see if full-time would be possible.

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