Objectives: Compare values of Disability Rating Scale (DRS) employability at 5 different employment statuses (competitively employed, FT student, PT student, homemaker, unemployed) at 1 year posttraumatic brain injury. Hypotheses: (1) Values of DRS employability will differ for different employment statuses. (2) Individuals who are competitively employed will have the best DRS employability scores. (3) Individuals who are students or homemakers will have lower percentages of "Not Restricted" for employability than those who are employed. Participants: Three thousand four hundred forty-one individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) at 1 year postinjury. Methods: Individuals were interviewed as part of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database (NIDRR TBIMS NDB). Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, boxplots, Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Median DRS employability for the 5 statuses were: comp. employed (0.0), FT student (0.5), PT student (1.0), homemaker (1.0), and unemployed (2.0). Kruskal-Wallis demonstrated that competitively employed individuals had significantly better employability scores (P < .005). Employed individuals had higher rates (66%) of being scored 0.0 or "not restricted" than students (46%) or homemakers (14%). Conclusions: Even though the scoring instructions for DRS employability do not penalize individuals for participating in student or homemaker activities, individuals with these employment statuses have lower employability scores.

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