The National Deaf Center has released an update to its data dashboard, incorporating the newest results from the 2024 American Community Survey (ACS). The updated dashboard features refreshed statistics on employment and earnings, college enrollment, educational attainment, and several other key indicators that track long‑term trends for deaf people in the United States.
This year’s data shows a historic milestone: 57.7% of deaf adults are employed, the highest employment rate ever recorded.
Over the past decade, employment has grown more rapidly for deaf people than for hearing people, with the deaf employment rate rising 8.3 percentage points since 2015. Yet despite this progress, the overall deaf–hearing employment gap has not narrowed in a meaningful way. Hearing employment has also increased steadily, keeping the gap at more than fifteen percentage points year after year. These persistent differences highlight ongoing challenges in ensuring full access to participation in the workforce.
Earnings data add another important dimension to this year’s update. Among adults working full time, deaf and hearing workers have the same median annual income of $60,000. This alignment in median earnings shows that when deaf people gain access to full‑time positions, their pay levels keep pace with those of hearing workers. The larger issue is ensuring that more deaf adults are able to obtain and sustain full‑time employment in the first place.
While earnings offer one part of the picture, another long‑standing pattern emerges in the 2025 data: deaf workers continue to have higher rates of self‑employment. This year, 10.6% of employed deaf adults are self‑employed, compared with 9.1% of hearing adults. Although the difference is modest, it has persisted across multiple years of ACS data. This pattern is also reflected in stories shared through our own video series; several deaf entrepreneurs featured in our videos describe how self‑employment provides flexibility, autonomy, and opportunities that traditional workplaces may not offer, a finding that suggests many deaf workers continue to build careers through alternative paths such as freelancing, contract work, or small business ownership.
These findings reinforce how critical it is to support deaf young people as they navigate college and career pathways. The National Deaf Center offers a range of resources designed to strengthen postsecondary exploration and improve transition planning: tools such as our transition readiness guides, career-focused lesson plans, self-advocacy resources, and training for educators, transition specialists, and VR professionals. By helping schools, families, and communities build stronger transition programs, we can expand opportunities for deaf people to access meaningful work, pursue further education, and enter the workforce with the preparation and support they need to thrive.
Data Source:
Bloom, C.L, Palmer, J.L., & Winninghoff, J. (2026). Deaf Postsecondary Data from the American Community Survey [Data visualization tool]. National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, University of Texas at Austin.
