Transgender people in the United States experience much higher rates of economic hardship than the general population, according to a survey of over 90,000 trans people. 

Among the early insights gleaned from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey out this week: More than a third of trans people said they were experiencing poverty, 18% were unemployed and 11% said they’ve lost a job because of their gender identity or expression.

Discrimination by hiring managers likely plays a role here, said Shanna Kattari, an associate professor at the University of Michigan.

“So it might not be something as explicit as ‘I’m not hiring you because you’re trans,’ but ‘I’m not hiring you because you don’t match my idea of what a woman should look like,'” they said.

The survey also found over a quarter of trans people couldn’t afford to go to a doctor when they needed to. And that can have economic consequences, said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, which conducted the survey. 

“The longer any kind of health condition goes untreated, the harder it is to navigate your daily life and meet deadlines and get to work on time and things like that,” he said.

In some communities at least, there are resources the trans community can tap into — including the San Francisco LGBT Center. Drew Lakhardt is its director of employment services.

“We work to really identify which employers are going to support community members,” they said.

Because an inclusive employer, Lakhardt said, can help trans workers get a job and thrive in it.