Occupations of SSI Recipients Who Work

This article uses the 2007 American Community Survey to estimate the occupational distribution of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability recipients aged 18–61 who work, and it compares their occupational distribution with that of working nonrecipients with and without disabilities. Based on models of occupational choice for working SSI recipients and nonrecipients, predicted occupational distributions are also estimated to understand what occupations are available to SSI recipients. Unlike the nonrecipient populations that are largely composed of sales- and office-based occupations (25 percent), the most common occupations of SSI recipients who work are in services (34 percent) and production, transportation, and material moving (30 percent), although sales- and office-based occupations are also common for SSI recipients (22 percent). The occupational distribution of working SSI recipients is also more concentrated than that of nonrecipient populations. Dissimilarity indices are used to compare the predicted and actual occupational distributions of the SSI recipient population and nonrecipient populations. More than one-half of the difference between the occupations of working SSI recipients and nonrecipients can be explained by demographic characteristics, human capital, and disability type. Additionally, nonemployed SSI recipients have similar predicted occupational distributions as currently employed SSI recipients. Given the estimated occupational distributions and the average earnings of individuals in the most common occupations of SSI recipients, the results suggest that more targeted vocational training may provide expanded opportunities for employment