Common DOT Codes -- Sedentary Unskilled -- Lens Block Gauger; Table Worker; Touch-Up Screener

Sedentary work that does not exceed six hours of sitting in an eight-hour day represents a small window.  The DOT and the regulations define sedentary work as involving standing or walking not more than occasionally, 2.3 hours.  Sedentary work as depicted by a residual functional capacity question with a lower limit of 5.7 hours an upper limit of 6.0 hours constitutes a slender reed.  

 Understanding sedentary work rests on the difference between and and or.  Light work exists (1) when it requires walking or standing to a significant degree; OR (2) when it requires sitting most of the time but entails pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls; AND/OR (3) when the job requires working at a production rate pace entailing the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is negligible.  

Sedentary work exists when the work (1) when it does not require walking or standing to a significant degree; AND (2) when it requires sitting most of the time and does not involve pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls; AND (3) when the job requires working at a production rate pace but does not entail the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is negligible.  Transgressing the standing/walking, lifting/carrying, pushing/pulling with the arms or legs, or production rate pace strips away any hope for that sedentary label.  

The cadre of vocational experts rely on 16 different DOT codes in the sedentary range.  Ignoring obsolescence and industry, the question is whether the occupations are unskilled, sedentary, and do not exceed 6.0 hours of sitting in a full-time workday.  

9.  Lens Block Gauger 

10.  Table Worker

11.  Touch-Up Screener

Lens block gauger, table worker, and touch-up screener belongs to the occupational group Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers (SOC 51-9061) (inspectors).  Inspectors represent about 550,000 jobs in the national economy.  Inspectors contains 782 DOT codes, 14 sedentary and unskilled.  This group contains 135 light unskilled DOT codes.  The significant segment of the unskilled occupational base for sedentary and light work are right here.    

The O*NET Resource Center describes the three component of SVP: on-the-job training, related work experience, and required level of education separately.  

On-the-Job Training
Duration	Value
None or short demonstration	0%
Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month	22.61%

Related Work Experience
Duration	Value
None	43.9%
Up to and including 1 month	0%

Required Level of Education
Education Level	Value
Less than a High School Diploma	0%
High School Diploma or the equivalent	69.81%

Using the O*NET Resource Center, incumbent data suggests that 23% of the jobs are unskilled.

The ORS data corresponds with the OTJ information from the O*NET Resource Center, about 18% of inspector jobs represent unskilled work.  The OccuCollect calculator uses the Occupational Outlook Handbook numbers, about 100,980 unskilled inspector jobs at all exertion levels.  

The next step in estimating the number of unskilled sedentary inspector jobs is to tease that conclusion from the data.  We start again with the O*NET OnLine:

Exertional	%	Response
Spend Time Sitting — How much does this job require sitting?	0	Continually or almost continually
	14	More than half the time
	25	About half the time
	44	Less than half the time
	17	Never

Spend Time Standing — How much does this job require standing?	41	Continually or almost continually
	7	More than half the time
	44	About half the time
	8	Less than half the time
	0	Never

Spend Time Walking and Running — How much does this job require walking and running?	35	Continually or almost continually
	18	More than half the time
	12	About half the time
	35	Less than half the time
	1	Never

The O*NET suggests that there are no sedentary inspector jobs in the national economy.  We check that conclusion against the ORS:

Sitting is Required
% Of Day	Percentile
<= 39.2%	Mean
<= -%	10th
<= 15%	25th
<= 25%	50th
<= 75%	75th
<= 90%	90th

Strength
Strength Type	Value
Sedentary	10.4%
Light Work	48.6%
Medium Work	30%

The sitting alone would allow an inference of 25% or more sedentary inspector jobs.  The specific statement reduces that percentage to 10%.  This means that there are 15% or more of inspector jobs that are sit down and light or greater in exertion.  

Treating skill and exertion as independent variables, about 10,100 inspector jobs could qualify as unskilled sedentary work in 14 different DOT codes.  The jobs most likely to qualify as sedentary require sitting 90% of the workday.  It is unlikely that any of these jobs permit sitting not more than six hours in an eight-hour day based on that measure.  

The ORS reports that inspectors have a choice of sitting or standing during the workday in 36% of jobs.  The ORS reports that 55% of inspectors have the ability to pause work.    Over 96% of inspectors work at either a fast pace or a varying work pace.  Whether any of these occupations would represent a sedentary work environment with a sit-stand option as opposed to sitting down during light and medium work would require a formal job analysis of a statistically relevant sample of those jobs.  

Without that statistical analysis, the best informed inference would treat the presence of sedentary and the choice of sitting or standing as independent variables.  That would put an estimate of around 4,000 jobs in 14 DOT codes.  There is no basis for dividing the choice of when to perform duties that require standing/walking from a true unaccommodated choice of sitting or standing at the workstation.  Estimating the number of jobs with a workstation sit-stand option is a probably pulled out of a hat.  

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Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, Common DOT Codes -- Sedentary Unskilled -- Lens Block Gauger; Table Worker; Touch-Up Screener, California Social Security Attorney (December 31, 2021)  https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com