Hello I'm new

Hello and wellcome to the community. I have been out of work for some time now but volunteer instead. Only 3 in 10 autistic adults are in employment. I am sorry to read you are feeling isolated and lonely but am sure you will make many friends here as we are all understanding and helpful to each other. Take care.  

LucyLandRover said:

Only 3 in 10 autistic adults are in employment.

Do you know who created that statistic? I'm wary until I know where a figure has come from because so much false information floats across the digital world. Did it come from a reliable statistics organisation or a biassed media outlet?

I also wonder how they defined autism and how the statistic was gathered. For example, although I'm autitistic, I'm not on any register anywhere. I haven't even told me doctor, and so I wouldn't be included in the statistic, and I've worked all my life.Private assessments and undiagnosed self-identifications won't be included in anything unless the autitistic person has deliberately registered somewhere.

Hmm... I think I'll try to see whether this statistic exists anywhere and where it came from.

In case anyone's interested, the 3 in 1 comes from the Buckland Report, which states:

"e.1 Autistica estimates that around 1 in 70 people is autistic, so about 1 million people in the UK. In 2022/2023 (the latest available figures) the number of people of working age in the UK who reported autism as either a main or secondary long-term health condition was 680,000. Neurodiverse people do not consistently identify as having a long-term health condition therefore these numbers are likely to be an undercount of the true population. Not all working age autistic people will be able to work, but NAS’s research found that the vast majority want to.  

e.2 Despite their wish to work, the latest official statistics show that only around 3 in 10 working age autistic disabled people are in employment, compared with around 5 in 10 for all disabled people and 8 in 10 for non-disabled people."

There's no explanation for Autistica's figures. In addition, I can't find any report supporting the 680,000 figure. I assume that what has happened there is that the report took the 22/23 Labour Force survey and multiplied it by the number of working age people in Great Britain in 22.23. The population fifgure would have come from the Office of National Statistics. The Labour Force survey had 400 self-reported autitic people in 25000 households i.e. 2.7% of those responding to the aurvey. However, the published survey doesn't report on how many of those 400 were unemployed, so I have no means of figuring out where the Buckland Report's figures came from, as they don't publish that.

That's dodgy in statistical terms as none of the figures can be checked. The report acknowledges the number of autistic people it's using may be underreported. If the numbers are much higher, then the number of us in employment will be more than 3 in 10. That's assuming their 680000 figure or Autitstica's 1 in 70 is real. Without knowing where these figures came from, it's impossible to tell. 
 

In case anyone's interested, the 3 in 1 comes from the Buckland Report, which states:

"e.1 Autistica estimates that around 1 in 70 people is autistic, so about 1 million people in the UK. In 2022/2023 (the latest available figures) the number of people of working age in the UK who reported autism as either a main or secondary long-term health condition was 680,000. Neurodiverse people do not consistently identify as having a long-term health condition therefore these numbers are likely to be an undercount of the true population. Not all working age autistic people will be able to work, but NAS’s research found that the vast majority want to.  

e.2 Despite their wish to work, the latest official statistics show that only around 3 in 10 working age autistic disabled people are in employment, compared with around 5 in 10 for all disabled people and 8 in 10 for non-disabled people."

There's no explanation for Autistica's figures. In addition, I can't find any report supporting the 680,000 figure. I assume that what has happened there is that the report took the 22/23 Labour Force survey and multiplied it by the number of working age people in Great Britain in 22.23. The population fifgure would have come from the Office of National Statistics. The Labour Force survey had 400 self-reported autitic people in 25000 households i.e. 2.7% of those responding to the aurvey. However, the published survey doesn't report on how many of those 400 were unemployed, so I have no means of figuring out where the Buckland Report's figures came from, as they don't publish that.

That's dodgy in statistical terms as none of the figures can be checked. The report acknowledges the number of autistic people it's using may be underreported. If the numbers are much higher, then the number of us in employment will be more than 3 in 10. That's assuming their 680000 figure or Autitstica's 1 in 70 is real. Without knowing where these figures came from, it's impossible to tell.