Washington, DC - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that in FY 2011, federal employees with disabilities represented 7.41 percent of the overall workforce and 11 percent when the figures include veterans who are 30 percent or more disabled. The report also shows significant increases in new hires of persons with disabilities. In FY 2011 people with disabilities represent 7.96 percent of all new hires and 14.7 percent of all new hires when veterans who are 30 percent or more disabled are also included - the highest percentage in 20 years. In total, more than 200,000 people with disabilities now work for the federal government, also the most in 20 years.

"People with disabilities are welcome in the federal family," said OPM Director John Berry. "We need the talents and creativity of all people—including people with disabilities—to help do the work of the American people.  We are doing anything possible to remove barriers to their employment, and the good news is that we're moving in the right direction, and you can see it in the numbers."

When President Obama signed Executive Order 13548 on July 26, 2010, he specifically set a goal of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities by 2015.  OPM is proud to take the lead in making that recruitment possible. In its own hiring, OPM leads all agencies in the first two quarters of 2012 with 4.2 percent of all new hires being people with targeted disabilities. In addition, in FY 2011, 22.4 percent of all hires at OPM were people with disabilities, including those veterans who were 30 percent or more disabled.

"We still have a long way to go to meet the President's 100,000 benchmark but we're well underway," said Director Berry. "I'm confident that we'll not only meet that goal, but that we will also add talented individuals to our team along the way."

Over 3,000 federal employees from more than 56 agencies have been trained on recruitment techniques and all cabinet level agencies have attended trainings hosted by OPM. The federal hiring community is better prepared to hire the talented members of the disability community by using the Schedule A excepted appointing authority to hire people with disabilities, providing reasonable accommodation, the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), and getting employees who become ill or injured on the job back to work.

To view the report, please visit: http://www.opm.gov/diversityandinclusion/reports/disability/index.aspx.

Our mission is to Recruit, Retain and Honor a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.