Major private sector employers, including IBM, Kmart and Woolworths, employ “disturbingly low” numbers of people with a disability, with the workers making up less than 1 per cent of their workforce.

Ten major companies, which collectively employ more than 341,000 people, revealed the figures on Monday to the disability royal commission, which is considering hiring targets and mandatory reporting requirements to change the country’s position as one of the lowest ranked employers of people with a disability in the OECD.