There is a shocking connection between autism and unemployment. Here is why there is an astronomical rate of unemployment among people with ASD.
Autism and Unemployment
Trouble Passing Interviews
People with autism lack the social skills to pass interviews. An interview is about something other than testing a person to see if they have the skills for a job. An interview is about not allowing candidates to move on who do not seem like a good fit for a company. Jobs require working with people.
Interviews vet out candidates who lack the social skills that society expects people to have to succeed in life. During an interview, the interviewer looks for signs that a person understands social cues and soft skills. Soft skills are a shortcoming for people with ASD.
Lack Of Soft Skills To Move Up
Soft skills are needed to move up in a traditional workplace successfully. They allow a person to navigate the politics of a work environment. Social skills help to network, get along with colleagues, come across as warm rather than cold to bosses, and are the social lubricant that goes along with hard skills to move up in a company.
An employee is socially awkward or out of place without these soft skills. They may accidentally say something that comes across as wrong.
They come across as cold to employers. They have difficulty understanding non-verbal communication. An interviewer seeks someone to get along with other employees and contribute to the work environment. The hard skills are just the icing on the cake.
Hard Skills
Hard skills only matter to a certain point in the traditional work environment. Those may be what you are paid to do, but you still need to interact with people every day. It could be virtually or in person.
Soft skills. Networking. Understanding office politics and schmoozing the right people. Those are what help someone to move up in a company. That is the secret that employers do not want you to know.
Hard skills are just what a person goes into the office to do every week.
Employees can be fired for any reason, even if they are the best person for a job, because they do not get along with people. No soft skills. No job. At least no job that will be able to pay the bills.
Many Autistic Individuals Get Stuck Working Dead End Jobs
Since many autistic individuals have trouble passing interviews, they often end up working dead-end jobs. Those are the ones who can work. According to My Disability Jobs, “at least 85% of adults that are autistic are unemployed and have a college education.” That means only about fifteen to twenty percent of people with ASD work part-time or full-time jobs.
The biggest reason for that high unemployment rate is that they lack soft skills.
Solutions For People With Autism
The good news is that there are always solutions. For someone on the spectrum, there are non-traditional options to work today. Some options are:
- Freelancing
- Remote or online work
- Starting an online business
- STEM careers
Summary
People with ASD have a high unemployment rate. There is plenty of discussion about trying to find solutions to employ people on the spectrum, but there is little talk of discussing the cause of the autism epidemic. If you are on the spectrum, you may be able to find work. It may be work that is below your skill set, and you may be underemployed.
