Employment in Population of People with ASDs

Post Reply New Topic

mysassyself, I cannot blame you for feeling that way. There are very few scholarships for graduate school and most graduate school programs are expensive nowadays (i.e at least $10000 per semester) given the current state of the economy.



Sorry to hear about your ex-husband .



Yeah, it is definitely not an easy task to take a load of graduate school courses and maintain well-paid employment for an extended period of time.

Thanks for your reply chssmsstrjk

Actually, I've been looking at jobs in the U.S. (I notice your profile says Virginia), as I've probably done enough Chemistry (fingers crossed) to get a job with on-the-job training which would be ideal.

If it were something I'm really, really interested in, I wouldn't mind doing a Masters if it were accessible online, and work at the same time. I just find the idea of studying full time and not earning .. somehow .. I've done enough of it already.

I thought I made another post here but it seems to have gone missing, or not posted properly.
It referred to the importance, for me, of meditation, when the best choice isn't clear. And by meditation I also mean not doing much, until I know what to do.

[1] Are you still in school? No
[2] If the answer to #1 is Yes, then what level of education are you currently in?
(A) Associate's (B) Bachelor's (C) Certificate (D) Master's (E) Doctorate or higher
[3] If the answer to #1 is No, then what is your highest level of education?
(A) High school (B) Some college (C) Associate's (D) Bachelor's (E) Certificate (F) Master's (G) Doctorate or higher. 11th grade
[4] Are you currently employed? No
[5] If the answer to #4 is Yes, then are you underemployed as defined above?
[6] If the answer to #4 is No, then are you currently looking for work? No
[7] If the answer to #4 is No, have you ever been employed? No
[8] If the answer to #7 is Yes, then were you underemployed while employed?
[9] If you answered Yes to either [4] or [7], then what's the longest period of time that you have held a job?

[1] Are you still in school? Yes
[2] If the answer to #1 is Yes, then what level of education are you currently in? Bachelor's
[4] Are you currently employed? Casually employed as a presenter and was hired last week as an assistant to an autism consultant I work with.
[5] If the answer to #4 is Yes, then are you underemployed as defined above? Would like more hours...so yes.

[1] Are you still in school?
No. I was working on a second degree until this fall but couldn't afford to continue at this time.
[3] If the answer to #1 is No, then what is your highest level of education?
(F) Master's
[4] Are you currently employed?
No.
[6] If the answer to #4 is No, then are you currently looking for work?
Yes, but without much hope (see 8 and 9).
[7] If the answer to #4 is No, have you ever been employed?
Yes.
[8] If the answer to #7 is Yes, then were you underemployed while employed?
Yes.
[9] If you answered Yes to either [4] or [7], then what's the longest period of time that you have held a job?
3 months.

[1] Are you still in school? No
[3] If the answer to #1 is No, then what is your highest level of education?
(D) Bachelor's, plus associates and a certificate
[b][4] Are you currently employed? No
[6] If the answer to #4 is No, then are you currently looking for work? Not really. If a freelance job comes my way I'll do it
[7] If the answer to #4 is No, have you ever been employed? Yes
[8] If the answer to #7 is Yes, then were you underemployed while employed? I suppose, since I only needed a high school diploma to get hired, although they did have me do things that were in my field
[9] If you answered Yes to either [4] or [7], then what's the longest period of time that you have held a job? 4 years (I've technically only had 1 real job)

Imployed, as a it-technician. Current employment has lasted 11yrs. 26hrs a week.

[1] No.

[2]

[3] Master's


[4] Yes.

[5] No, the job has strong ties to my MA degree.

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9] One year. Then company went bankrupt.

You're welcome.

I voted "unemployed and not looking". Right now I would be useless to anybody in a job capacity. I have had numerous jobs throughout most of my adult life including a couple of decent ones but my mental health is not good atm and that means I cope with my AS symptoms worse and so if I had to, for example, be in an office full of people with all the noise such as telephones going off and people talking constantly then that alone would probably make my head explode within 30 minutes of being there. I'd like nothing more than to have a job (despite what certain newspapers (and our BS government) would have people believe life on disability benefits in this country isn't a lot of fun) but right now trying to do so would accomplish nothing. I recognise that right now I am not really of much use to anyone who needs an employee that can turn up to work consistently and who can pretty much guarantee the completion of a full day's work. Right now I couldn't make that promise so there is no point in me trying to find work. I have no intention of being without work for the rest of my life but there are other things I need to sort out first before I can actually be of any use to anybody. In the meantime I am continuing to work on playing poker - I am already making money, my skill is still improving and no plateau of improvement is yet in sight so perhaps eventually I wont need a job :p

What do you guys think of the poll numbers so far? 62% unemployed, 18% underemployed. Are the numbers what you expected or a surprise?

First I think we have to consider that, whatever you call it (disability, impairment, PDD (edited a typo), whatever), a lot of us have difficulties that can make employment significantly more difficult for us than for an average person. Next, I think at any point - even during economic boom times - that the numbers for employed and underemployed in the ASD population would be significantly higher than the average population. I suspect that the already marginalised such as people with ASDs probably find it even harder again during times like the present when there are fewer jobs to begin with due to weak economic growth and government spending cuts (in at least many of the nations which our pool of posters come from - I recognise that some countries are weathering the ongoing economic storm a lot better).

Combine these factors with the fact that straw polls like this tend to attract people for whom the question is an issue or, to put it another way, people will be more likely to respond to a thread or poll which resonates with them so that will tend to skew the numbers. Also people who don't have a job are more likely to have more free time and are therefore correspondingly more likely to be surfing WP in the first place to respond to such a poll. So having considered all that I am not too suprised by how high the numbers are. A properly conducted and representative survey would probably also indicate a higher than average rate of unemployment and underemployment among people with AS but I wouldn't be suprised if it was a lot lower than the numbers we have here. I wouldn't like to try to guess real numbers. I would call our results suggestive but far from conclusive.

Last edited by invisiblesilent on 16 Jan 2013, 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

More people are employed than I would have expected.

[1] No
[2] N/A
[3] G - MBA
[4] Yes
[5] Not really...corporate HR Director
[6] N/A
[7] N/A
[8] N/A
[9] Been promoted or moved around in companies, but 7 years is the longest I've been at any company

Hope that was helpful