Study finds setbacks for young autistic adults

Associated Press
May 13, 2012

One in 3 lack job experience or higher education, researchers say, based on data gathered before unemployment peaked from the recession. About half a million autistic children will reach adulthood in the next decade.

CHICAGO — One in 3 young adults with autism have no paid job experience or college or technical education nearly seven years after high school graduation, a study finds. That’s a poorer showing than those with other disabilities, including the mentally disabled, the researchers said.

With roughly half a million autistic children who will reach adulthood in the next decade, experts say policymakers urgently need to address the issue.
The study was done well before unemployment peaked from the recession. The situation today is tough even for young adults who don’t have such limitations.

The study, to be published online Monday in Pediatrics, was based on data from 2007 to 2008. It found that within two years of leaving high school, more than half of those with autism had no job experience or college or technical education.

Things improved as they got older. Yet nearly seven years after high school, 35% of autistic young adults still had no paid employment or education beyond high school.

“There is this wave of young children who have been diagnosed with autism who are aging toward adulthood,” he said. “We’re kind of setting ourselves up for a scary situation if we don’t think about that and how we’re going to help these folks and their families.”