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Momentum at Work:
Disability and Career Mobility
Professionals with disabilities are moving ahead. Can employers keep them?
Global research from Disability:IN and LinkedIn reveals that professionals with disabilities are advancing in their careers—but often by changing employers.
For business leaders, this raises a practical question: how can companies retain talented employees to build their careers internally? Drawing on nearly 10 million self-identified LinkedIn members with disabilities across seven countries, Momentum at Work examines career advancement, employment, and retention- and what these patterns mean for today’s most competitive organizations.
Career advancement often means changing employers
What the Research Reveals
From 2023 to 2024, 7.3% of LinkedIn members with disabilities moved into higher-level positions. Most of that advancement happened through a change in employers.
These findings raise an important question for business leaders: are employees finding their next opportunity within your organization—or somewhere else?
7.3%
of LinkedIn members with disabilities advanced into higher-level positions at a new employer.
Nearly 4x
Advancement was nearly four times as common through changing employers as through moving up internally.
~10 Million
Self-identified LinkedIn members with disabilities studied across seven countries.
The analysis draws on anonymized, aggregated LinkedIn data covering nearly 10 million members who self-identify as having a disability.
The report includes country-level comparisons across Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with analysis of employment, career mobility, retention, and generational differences.
Recruiting talent is only part of the equation. Helping employees grow can protect institutional knowledge, strengthen succession planning, and reduce the disruption of turnover.
Use this research to start a more informed conversation:
- Can employees access clear pathways to advancement?
- Where might career development processes create barriers?
- Does your disability inclusion strategy support employees throughout their careers?
Disability:IN is the global nonprofit helping businesses advance disability inclusion. This research brings together its business expertise and LinkedIn’s Economic Graph research to help leaders understand how professionals with disabilities are navigating the workforce.
Download Momentum at Work
Get the full findings, country-level comparisons, and analysis to inform conversations about disability inclusive talent development and retention.
Complete the form below to access the report.
Looking for a quick overview? Download the Accessible Report Snapshot
Your Vote Can Move This Research Forward
Momentum at Work, from Disability:IN and LinkedIn, has been named an Anthem Awards Finalist.
Now through October 29, you can vote for the study to receive the Anthem Community Voice Award. Voting is open now through Thursday, October 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
How to vote:
- Visit the Anthem Awards voting site.
- Find Momentum at Work: A Global Study on Disability and Career Mobility.
- Cast your vote and share with colleagues, friends, and your network.
- Cast your vote and help amplify the conversation around career mobility and opportunities for professionals with disabilities.
Put the Insights to Work
Explore practical ways your organization can apply these workforce insights to strengthen career pathways and create more inclusive opportunities for professionals with disabilities.
Strengthen Career Pathways
Work with Inclusion Works to connect disability inclusion to talent development, outreach and engagement with disabled talent, and opportunities for growth throughout the employee lifecycle.
Build Your Team’s Capabilities
Equip leaders and teams with practical knowledge about accommodations, accessibility, and neuroinclusion to support employees as their careers evolve.
Assess Your Organization’s Practices
Use the Disability Index® to benchmark disability inclusion practices and identify opportunities to strengthen your approach.
FAQs
This report examines how disability status influences career mobility, professional networks, and workforce outcomes. By analyzing LinkedIn’s global labor market data, the research highlights disparities in network strength, career progression, and professional connectivity between professionals both with and without disabilities.
This research was developed in collaboration between LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Research Institute (EGRI) and Disability:IN.
This study draws on the anonymized and aggregated profile information of LinkedIn’s 1 billion+ members around the world. The sample is limited to Brazil, Spain, France, Canada,United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States for which there are at least 250,000 Self-ID responses.
This research found that LinkedIn members with disabilities often have smaller networks compared to members without disabilities, which can affect career mobility and visibility in the labor market. However, the research also shows that professionals with disabilities frequently maintain diverse indirect connections that expand their broader network and exposure to opportunities.
Organizations can use the findings to better analyze gaps in employee retention and understand how access to professional networks influences disability inclusion and career growth.
This report is designed for:
- Corporate leaders and executives
- HR and talent development professionals
- Accessibility and disability inclusion practitioners
- Policymaker and workforce researchers
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