Characteristics of the longest job for new disabled workers: findings from the New Beneficiary Survey.

This article describes the characteristics of the longest job held by new disabled-worker beneficiaries responding to questions in the 1982 New Beneficiary Survey, conducted by the Social Security Administration in October-December 1982. The characteristics include pension coverage, job duration, employer type, occupation, and industry. Many disabled workers (about half the men and two-fifths of the women) reported having been covered by a pension plan. Pension coverage, pension receipt, and job tenure all increased with age, and older disabled workers had pension coverage similar to that of retired workers. Disabled and retired workers often differed in other job characteristics, but tended to become more similar with increasing age. Disabled workers were more likely to have had longest jobs with private employers and in operator-laborer occupations. When they were compared with the job characteristics of retired workers, the characteristics of disabled women exhibited less difference than did those of disabled men.