Effect of vocational rehabilitation on employment and earnings of the disabled: state variations.

Analysis of followup data in linked records of the Social Security Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration shows wide variation by State in 1972 employment and earnings of rehabilitants compared with those for other disabled persons whose cases were closed by State vocational rehabilitation agencies in fiscal year 1971. These State differences in the effect of rehahabilitation occur for both men and women. When the States are ranked by the magnitude of the rehabilitation effect, a reasonable consistency is found among the rankings under the various measures of effect. Under the most valid measure used--employment percentage difference between rehabilitated and not-rehabilitated clients--two patterns emerge: (1) The effect of rehabilitation among the States increases proportionally in South-to-North and West-to-East directions and (2) the relative effect favors women in more States than it does men and in more States than under the other measures.