Work performance skills in adults with and without high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD)

•Employability of people with high functioning autism (HFASD).•The Autism Work Skills Questionnaire (AWSQ) provides a working profile.•Significant differences on the AWSQ with matched typical people.•The importance of matching jobs to the working profile of people with HFASD.

The Autism Work Skills Questionnaire (AWSQ) consists of 78 items, divided into 6 domains; 5 domains focus on employment skills, the 6th relates to one's sensory needs within the work environment. Initial internal consistency reliability for the AWSQ has been established. The purpose of this study was to examine its discriminate validity between people with HFASD to controls with Typical Development (TD). The AWSQ was completed by a convenience sample of 102 TD subjects (25 women, 77 men) and 37 subjects with HFASD (7 women, 30 men), both groups were aged 20–40. From the TD sample, 37 individuals were further matched to those with HFASD.Significant differences were found between the work skills of people with and without HFASD. Differences were found in almost all the domains of the AWSQ. Significant correlations were found between the different categories among people without HFASD as opposed to a small number of correlations among people with HFASD. These findings suggest a unique working profile among those with HFASD, in comparison to the TD sample, and highlight the importance of assessing their unique abilities and challenges in order to provide people with HFASD with a job that matches their interests and working profiles.