BACKGROUND: Young adults with disabilities in their early career years face limited access to high wage/high skill jobs, barriers in the workplace, and inadequate opportunities for career retention and advancement. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this literature review was to examine the process of career development for young adults with disabilities entering the workforce and document strategies for vocational rehabilitation counselors to facilitate career advancement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted using the online databases Academic Search Premier, ERIC, and PsychInfo. Key words for the search included the terms: disabilities, emerging adulthood, young adults, career advancement, vocational development, and early career. Articles included in this review met the following criteria: (a) published in peer reviewed journals in or after the year 2000, (b) findings addressed either processes, barriers, or strategies for emerging adults with disabilities entering the workforce. RESULTS: Major barriers to career advancement include: a) lack of work experience and restricted aspirations, b) sporadic patterns of early employment, c) limited access to postsecondary education and training, and d) discrimination and prejudice in the workforce. Strategies to enhance early career development included: a) developing individual attributes and skills, b) broadening the range of careers explored, c) creating initial work experience opportunities, d) obtaining postsecondary education/training, e) providing supports to facilitate advancement on the job, and f) advocating for changes in the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Using an ecological framework to impact individual skills, create training opportunities, and enhance work place environments, rehabilitation counselors can help young adults with disabilities gain equal access to career options and ultimately achieve economic independence and stability.programs and improving post-school employment outcomes, young adults with disabilities in their early career years are more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or living below the poverty line than their non-disabled peers [9,55].As young people with disabilities gain vocational skills and prepare to enter the workforce, they face an increasingly competitive labor market. In 2011, unemployment rates for young adults with disabilities ages 16 to 24 were 13 to 16% higher than for those without disabilities [9]. Individuals with disabilities are also more likely to be living in poverty and less likely to live