Background: Autistic adults experience disproportionately low employment rates, shaped by systemic and structural barriers that extend beyond individual skills. Although research on autism and employment has grown, it remains fragmented across disciplines and undersynthesized. Addressing these gaps requires not only stronger empirical evidence but also reflection on how knowledge in this field is organized and shared. Methods: We analyzed 1279 publications on autism and employment (1982–2025) indexed in Scopus. Document co-citation analysis was conducted in CiteSpace, supported by citation burst detection, dual-map overlays, examination of journal productivity, and international collaboration. Results: The analysis revealed three broad stages of development: individual-focused intervention, sociocontextual framing, and organizational inclusion. Thematic clusters showed a shift from behavioral and skill-based interventions to neurodiversity-informed approaches, emphasizing discrimination, the double empathy problem, and inclusive employment practices. However, research remains fragmented, dominated by Western perspectives, and limited in autistic-led contributions. Conclusions: This scientometric review shows that autism and employment research have shifted from individual-focused interventions toward more systemic and neurodiversity-informed approaches, yet remain fragmented across disciplines and heavily concentrated in Western contexts. To address these gaps, future research should prioritize organizational-level inquiry (e.g., workplace norms, human resource practices, and evaluation systems), strengthen integration between psychology, organizational studies, and policy research, and expand participatory, autistic-led designs that are attentive to global and cultural diversity.
Dimitriou et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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