Getting a job is about much more than earning a paycheck. It’s a rite of passage. It’s about assuming an adult role in society, gaining self-confidence, establishing independence and taking those first steps toward pursuing a career.

Our Approach

Inability to find or maintain a job may be a challenge during the transition to adulthood and has the potential to negatively affect a person’s quality of life. We want to find more effective ways of helping young adults have these first job experiences.

Our Key Questions

What is the unemployment rate of people on the autism spectrum?

What type of jobs do they get? How much are they paid?

How do people on the autism spectrum get the help they may need to find and keep a job?

Our Key Findings

This is what we’ve learned from our research so far:

• Young adults are struggling to find their first job. Four in every ten young adults with autism never work for pay between high school and their early 20s. (NAIR, 2015)
• Young adults on the autism spectrum have the lowest rate of employment compared to their peers with other disability types. (NAIR, 2015)
• Employed young adults are mostly working part-time jobs and earning low wages. (Roux, 2013)