More than 40% of Australian managers have never hired a person with disability, survey shows

The YouGov survey of 501 Australian middle managers and HR professionals also found dissatisfaction with the $1bn-a-year disability employment services program (Des), which pays private providers to place jobseekers into work.

The survey, commissioned by the social enterprise Jigsaw, comes as the Albanese government urges businesses ahead of its upcoming jobs summit to employ people with disability to meet labour force shortages.

The survey found 50% of Australian managers/HR professionals have never hired or worked with a person with disability. More broadly, 41% said their organisation had not hired a person with disability, and 8% said they were not open to doing so in the future.

A further 21% were connected through a Disability Employment Services provider.

The disability royal commission last year heard only 53.4% (1 million) of working-aged people with disability participate in the labour force.

Data shows people with disability are also much more likely to live in poverty, according to the Australian Council of Social Service, in large part due to sub-poverty line welfare benefits.

Guardian Australia last year revealed the program had been criticised as ineffective by a government-commissioned report.

Jigsaw, a social enterprise that provides training, traineeships and a pathway to award wage work, is essentially a competitor to disability employment services providers.

This makes the program distinctly separate from Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs), which employ about 20,000 people with disability at below award rates, sometimes as much as $2 an hour.

Some advocacy groups told the royal commission ADEs should be scrapped. The inquiry has also heard damning evidence about other trainee schemes for people with disability, such as a barista course that lacked basic equipment.

Jigsaw trainees are between 16 and 29 years of age and while there is no focus on jobseekers with a particular disability, about 60% live with autism spectrum disorder. Most are referred via the school system.

Lloyd is now working at the New South Wales government Department of Premier and Cabinet.