A new new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that personal care and service occupations have the highest percentage of workers reporting a disability, at 19.4%. In contrast, only 11.1% of health care practitioners and technicians reported having disabilities, representing a low end of the spectrum.

Researchers identified three possibilities for a higher percentage of persons with disabilities in some occupations including better workplace programs, employees self-selecting into those jobs based on perceived skill levels, or less competition for those generally lower-wage jobs. The CDC authors suggested that employers implement workplace programs that address the training, education and workplace needs of employees with disabilities.