A new and comprehensive report about the current state of transgender persons in the workplace can be downloaded from here.
Some hard stats:
The unemployment rate (2011 data) for transgender population as a whole was 14% at a time when the unemployment rate for the general population was 7%. The unemployment rate for transgender people of color, however, was as high as 28% (Black). The Native American transgender unemployment rate was 24%, Latinos 18%, and multiracial 18%. Forty-four percent who were working at that time said they were underemployed (working part-time or temporary jobs or overqualified for the job they had).
Transgender people are nearly four times (15%) as likely to to have an income under $10,000 per year than the general population (4%). Thus many of us who do find work are “working poor.” MAP analyzed 14 studies of income data in 2009 and found that 46% of transgender people earned no more than $15,300 annually. A study in California found that transgender people were twice as likely to live below the poverty line than the general population.