The Role of Anxiety in Employment Seeking for Autistic Adults

Abstract

The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that the unemployment rate for autistic adults is 34.1%. This is substantially greater than unemployment amongst the neurotypical population and for adults with other disabilities. Despite an increase in the number of young autistic adults attending university, these elevated unemployment outcomes remain poor comparative to the neurotypical population. Research has begun to explore reasons for the elevated unemployment rate in autistic adults. One potential factor influencing employment outcomes is anxiety, which is a commonly reported co-occurring condition for autistic individuals. Some recent studies acknowledge the experience of anxiety during adulthood transitions into varying environments, including educational settings and the workplace. However, no research to date has explored the impact of anxiety on autistic young adults during the transition from university to employment. This qualitative study aimed to explore whether anxiety or anxiety-related constructs (including intolerance of uncertainty) were perceived to impact the experiences of autistic adults transitioning into employment and whether there are any experiences specific to seeking postuniversity employment. To this end, 12 autistic adults who had experience in looking for at least one job were recruited to participate in this study. Half of the participants reported upon their experience of graduate job-seeking (i.e., the initial job upon leaving university), and half reported on general job-seeking experiences. This design allowed for the identification of the perceived impact of anxiety on job seeking (i.e., present across participants in both groups) and for any specific impacts on job seeking post-university (i.e., present in just the graduate group). A phenomenological method was applied to interview data to explore experiences of anxiety during the job-seeking process which were analysed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis generated three themes pertaining to the impact of anxiety on seeking employment common amongst both employment groups: Finding the sweet spot (optimal level of anxiety), Just trying to keep it together despite the anxiety, and Finding employment has a personal toll. Only one specific subtheme was unique to post-university employment seeking, this being the experience of shutdowns, meltdowns, and panic attacks. The findings suggest that autistic job candidates across both employment groups would benefit from tailored accommodations and adjustments offered throughout the recruitment process, to reduce anxiety and improve employment-seeking outcomes for autistic candidates.