Are longer periods of unemployment significant for people on the spectrum?

from not being diagnosed with Autism as a child and being sent to metal hospitals and units I ended up with social anxiety , I did try working when I was a teen on YTS but I ended up having panic attacks and running home. I am now 45 and have not worked since a teen, I have volunteered and was working with a ferret recue from my home, but I get so stressed at just the thought of going shopping that I cant even consider getting a job, just the thought of it sends fear in to me. I was a single mum for 17 years and I was good at that so I feel I have done my bit as my daughter is a very caring loving person who works in a care home. But I have spent my life being told I am lazy and benefit scrounger to the point I just wanted to kill my self , I only just got my Autism diagnosis even though I self diagnosed myself when I was 26 , I would have been happy to just live with my self diagnose but when PIP came in they put me though hell as it was not in my doctors records so they did not believe me. I went though so much getting my pip that it has knocked me back, I was doing so much better and going out more but having to sit in court to prove I was not lying has made me not want to leave the house at all. I know some people with Autism can work but others can't and I feel its unfair to look down on those who cant, we are not lazy we are busy just making it through the day. I would like the government to be more understanding that we are all different , 

PS  I suppose I should add that my credo has generally been that I work to live - not live to work.  It's always been a means to an end.  My main passions in life are what come after work - writing, reading, other creative work.  For those, I need time - which is why long shifts and overtime are things I've always tried to avoid.  Likewise, big financial commitments, like a mortgage.  After-work time is my time and no one else's.  I get home, close my door, and I'm in my world!  I've never had any inclination to be a manager in work - again, because of the extra commitments, and the fact that I prefer to let other people make the decisions - even if the risk is there that I won't agree with them!  It's good, though, to try to combine that need for income with something that can be stimulating and interesting.  Even my most boring jobs have had elements that I enjoy and can get absorbed in.  The care work, though, is probably my most rewarding job so far.  And the fact that I'm working with autistic people adds a further element of special interest.

Hi Erika,

I started work when I was 16, so have been in the job market for 42 years.  In that time, I've had periods of unemployment (following 2 redundancies or periods of leaving work through sickness) ranging from 6 months to 4 years.  The longer periods have generally been for sickness.  On two occasions I left jobs through ill-health - one because of workplace bullying, one because the shift work messed me up too much and I had a suicidal breakdown.  That latter job was the exception in that all of my other jobs, throughout life, have generally been fixed around the 'office hours' structure, with no or very little overtime.  So, roughly 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.  That's the structure that suits me. 

I've had many jobs.  I've worked on farms, in shops and offices.  I've been a driver, a book-keeper, a civil servant.  I've stacked shelves in supermarkets and manned the pumps in a petrol station.  My first job was at a Devon cider works, where I helped to harvest the apples, make the cider, bottle it, deliver it, sell it.  I've lost count of the number of jobs I've had, but it's probably around 30.  Length of tenure has ranged from 2 weeks to (the longest) 6 years.  The 6-year job was in a large independent wholefood shop.  I stayed so long because I loved the place: full of hippies, drop-outs, radicals, anarchists, musicians, artists, hunt saboteurs... people on my wavelength!  I was made redundant from there and my next job was in the civil service, as a Family law administrative officer, handling mainly divorce.  It was interesting work in many ways, but in a stiflingly dull office with ultra-conventional people - the complete opposite of my previous experience.  The civil service, though, is a good place for people like us.  I liked the relatively good pay, the flexi-time, the routines, the good leave entitlement, the extra grace-and-favour days off.  It was the best off I've ever been financially in the work place - but in the end the dullness of the environment got to me.  I was shunned by my co-workers, which has been a common experience (my diagnosis helped me to discover why!).  I left that for a job in care, working with people with learning disabilities.  For the last 12 years, that's mainly what I've done - in four different establishments.  Again, I've generally been lucky to take on roles in day services, so office hours again.  I wouldn't want to do residential work.  That's when you get the horrible shifts and the overtime.  I currently work with autistic adults in a day centre.  I do 4 days a week, so have nice long weekends off.  I can just about manage on it money-wise, though it's tight at times.  But I live cheaply and simply, which helps.  I have a strong need for simplicity in my life.  I can't handle too many priorities.

So, I guess my answer to your question is: yes.  In my case, too, lots of changes.  The older I get, the harder it can be to change.  Having said that, though, this is my 5th job in the last 4 years (and I've had offers of two others in the last 2 months!)  I've been in this current role since September, and feel reasonably settled.  I can't say I'll stay until I retire in 8 years' time - but who knows!

I also did voluntary work once - as a computer trainer in a local library.  Mainly basic stuff - showing novices how to use Windows, surf the internet, set up emails.  That can be a good experience if you're that way inclined.  It's something to put on your CV.  Depends how you feel about working with people.  Learning disabilities, in many ways, is my ideal role.  I identify naturally with vulnerable people.  I tend to get on better with the service users than the staff, too.  I feel more on their wavelength.  It's challenging and exhausting work, and badly-paid, but very rewarding.

Well, I have lots of gaps.  Which are difficult to explain.  And different truthful explanations for them.

1. Cannot find work.  Even while trying hard.
2. Cannot work due to physical illness such as heart failure.
3. Mental illness such as depression and suicide attempts.
4. Full time education.  Too much and employers don't want me.
5. Family pressure not to find work.  
6. Unexplained.

Even employment experts have almost given up.   And I have had 4 advisors helping me over the last year.

If you were the hiring manager for a role, and you needed to whittle down 100 applicants to the one person to get the job, how would you do this?

typically you end up with:

1) an initial CV scrub where you weed out candidates based on some criteria. Typically this includes lots of suspiciously short jobs, and/or unexplained gaps in employment history. Employers are looking for a continuous story from the time you left full time education. You don't need to have been employed, but you do need to account convincingly for the time...

2) a telephone "screening" interview. If you insist on using the internet to help you through this, please try to ensure that your keystrokes into Google are not audible to the interviewer. 

3) a F2f interview, perhaps with an earlier "homework" exercise. 

I was out of work for twenty five years, getting my first permanent job when I was in my forties.

For me, in an interview I never fitted the 'body language' that the job interviewer expected.  The eye contact, the fidgeting, the not understanding the questions, answering a question in a way not expected, poor processing of the spoken word, appearing hesitant, answering questions which were not asked, giving an answer that would relate to an earlier question, just rambling on in a bid to gain processing/thinking time - these all meant I was very unlikely to be offered the job.  I am always better at writing things down, mainly because generally the processing time isn't quite so important - I can need a considerable time to think of the correct word to use.

I can imagine that the current way of dealing with the unemployed does no favours to anyone who is autistic.  The current system seems to 'blame' someone for their unemployment, when in fact most unemployed people need genuine help, and this applies even more to autistic people.  Trying to get me to make a dozen phone calls a day asking potential employers if they had any vacancies I found impossible. 

Don't think of a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition to be a bad thing.  The diagnosis doesn't change you, it just confirms what you are.  And don't think that you are disabled in the conventional sense.  There are more ways to be disabled than to be paraplegic, blind, deaf or similar.  Disablement also comes from the way society treats people and attitudes of others.  Like anyone else, you will have your strengths and weaknesses, society (and employers) often homes in on the weaknesses instead of looking at the strengths.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to get support from a local autism service.  If this is available to you, consider this very seriously.  And ensure you tell the jobcentre about your diagnosis, like everyone else they will be obliged to take into account any problems you have and make adjustments to their usual practices under the Equality Act.

Short answer is YES!