Written by: Jeffrey Normore & Vanessa Sinclair

A new Statistics Canada analysis shows that, overall, employees with disabilities stay in their jobs about as long as expected once factors like age, gender, and sector are considered. However, tenure is shorter for some disability types, nonepisodic conditions, and more severe disabilities. It’s still unknown why these differences exist, and how things like job lock and limited mobility, factors that often shape the careers of disabled workers, especially those with mental health or learning disabilities, play a role. These are important areas for future research, and the study highlights the need to look deeper into what drives job tenure and mobility for people with disabilities.  

Why Job Tenure Alone Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story 

Job tenure simply measures how long someone has worked for the same employer. It doesn’t reveal whether workers are staying because they’re thriving, or because of “job lock”—when changing jobs risks losing accommodations, benefits, or a psychologically safe environment. Tenure also doesn’t show how many workers are pushed out early due to workplace stigma, inconsistent supports, or the risks of disclosing a disability. In other words, job tenure statistics for workers with disabilities include people who are “stuck” in their roles, as well as those who leave too soon. This study is a good starting point, but more research is needed to understand how barriers like benefit cliffs, accommodation portability, and unmet workplace needs affect job mobility. 

Why This Matters Now: Mental Health and Learning Disabilities 

Workers with mental health and learning disabilities have lower job tenures on average. In our work with employers across Canada, we see retention risks peak where psychological safety is fragile and where day-to-day practices aren’t designed for cognitive load, information processing, or executive function demands. When mental health and learning disabilities are involved, the quality and portability of accommodations, clear communication, predictable workloads, and manager confidence are decisive for whether people stay, grow, or leave. Research shows that psychological safety improves mental health, disclosure comfort, and career growth, and it’s strongly tied to retention.
https://ccrw.org/trends-reports 

Disability Confident Leaders Change the Retention Curve 

CCRW equips employers with a comprehensive, free Disability Confidence Toolkit and a verified Disability Confidence Training program for leaders. These resources translate evidence into practical steps that reduce stigma, make accommodations routine, and build manager skill—three key drivers of retention for mental health and learning disabilities.

Practical Steps Leaders Can Take This Quarter 

Here are actions from our toolkit and training that improve retention for workers with mental health and learning disabilities. These can be implemented in existing teams without overhauling your HR playbook: 

• Build a disclosure-safe culture and normalize accommodation check-ins: Train managers to invite conversations about needs, protect privacy, and schedule routine check-ins to adjust supports. For mental health, pair this with flexible scheduling and options for quiet or alternative workspaces. 

• Use plain language and multimodal instructions: For learning disabilities, provide step-by-step job aids, checklists, and brief demos. Follow oral directions with written summaries, and confirm understanding without singling people out. 

• Chunk work and rightsize cognitive load: Break tasks into smaller milestones with clear time estimates, enable extended time for training and assessments, and use visual organizers or project boards to make priorities visible. 

• Provide predictable schedules with flexible options: Stabilize start times and core meetings, offer predictable breaks, and flex for therapy or medical appointments—an evidence-based retention lever for mental health conditions. 

• Offer low-cost assistive tech by default: Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, note-taking tools, noise reduction headsets, and accessible document templates. Document “what works” so support is portable across roles and managers. 

• Train leaders on the duty to accommodate and the duty to inquire: Build confidence to act early when performance signals might be disability-related, and formalize a simple, transparent path to request and review accommodations. 

• Measure psychological safety and act on it: Include brief pulse questions about disclosure comfort, belonging, and ease of requesting supports, then close the loop with visible fixes. 

From Tenure to Mobility: The Real Story for Readers 

The StatsCan paper is important for establishing baseline tenure, but readers deserve to know the “why” behind it—especially for mental health and learning disabilities, where a manager’s day-to-day practice predicts whether people are locked in, locked out, or moving up. Our perspective reframes the findings around mobility and retention drivers, not just tenure averages.