Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them

The Commissioner re-issued EM-21065 REV 2 effective January 6, 2025. EM-21065 follows the effective date of SSR 24-3p, removed references to SSR 00-4p, and made editorial changes. EM-21065 describes the SkillTRAN products (OccuBrowse, Job Browser Pro, and OASYS) as useful but does not replace policy, judgment, or decision-making. EM-21065 emphasizes that the SkillTRAN reports of aptitudes and work situations (temperaments) are not consistent with agency policy:

These ratings do not represent functional requirements for work because they reflect the personal interests, natural abilities, and personality characteristics of job incumbents rather than occupational requirements that adjudicators must consider when assessing the vocational impact of limitations or restrictions resulting from a medically determinable impairment(s), as is required for SSA’s disability programs.

SSA misapprehends the origin of aptitudes and temperaments. These data categories are not part of SkillTRAN products but are instead part of the DOT dataset. Every major reporter of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) dataset report aptitudes and temperaments. The Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO) is just that, a statement of selected characteristics. The selected characteristics implies that the dataset contains other characteristics that the Department of Labor did not select. The "unselected" characteristics include not only aptitudes and temperaments but also work fields and materials, products, subject matter, and services codes (necessary for transferable skills analysis). 

The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (DOL 1991) (RHAJ) explains all data fields used in the DOT, SCO, and the unselected characteristics. The RHAJ defines aptitudes in chapter 9. The RHAJ explains:

Every aptitude factor must be considered independently in the rating process for each job. The analyst estimates the level of each aptitude required of the worker for average, satisfactory performance based on a careful evaluation of the work activities of the job and the specific worker abilities which can be identified in terms of the aptitudes.

The RHAJ defines the 11 aptitudes:

General Learning Ability -- the ability to "catch on" or understand instructions and underlying principles. 

Verbal Aptitude -- the ability to understand the meaning of words and to use them effectively. 

Numerical Aptitude -- the ability to perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately. 

Spatial Aptitude -- the ability to think visually of geometric forms and to comprehend two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional objects. 

Form Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in objects or in pictorial or graphic material. 

Clerical Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in verbal or tabular material.

Motor Coordination -- the ability to coordinate eyes and hands or fingers rapidly and accurately in making precise movements with speed. 

Finger Dexterity -- the ability to move the fingers and manipulate small objects with the fingers rapidly and accurately. 

Manual Dexterity -- the ability to move the hands easily and skillfully. 

Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination -- the ability to move the hand and foot coordinately with each other in accordance with visual stimuli. 

Color Discrimination -- The ability to match or discriminate between colors in terms of hue, saturation, and brilliance.

Each of these abilities pertain to specific work functions required of the ability to perform work activity. General learning ability relates to the ability to meet the bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQ) of work, to become proficient within prescribed training periods. Coordination and dexterity relate to the ability to perform work tasks according to employer expectations. The 11 categories of aptitudes represent functional abilities whether naturally occurring or diminished by medically determinable impairments. 

Semi-skilled can require coordination and dexterity. 20 CFR § 404.1568(b). The ability to perform light work includes sedentary work unless the person has a loss of dexterity or inability to sit for long periods. 20 CFR § 404.1567(b). The aptitudes address the reasonable expectations of employers related to the BFOQ. 

The RHAJ explains temperaments in chapter 10:

Temperaments, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the adaptability requirements made on the worker by specific types of jobs. 

The category Temperaments is one of the components of job analysis because different job situations call for different personality traits on the part of the worker. Experience in placing individuals in jobs indicates that the degree to which the worker can adapt to work situations is often a determining factor for success. A person's dissatisfaction or failure to perform adequately can sometimes be attributed to an inability to adapt to a work situation rather than to an inability to learn and carry out job duties.

EM-21065 focuses on personality traits ignoring the concept of the ability to adapt. The inability to adapt to work or vocational adaptability is grounded in the medical-vocational guidelines (the grids). Appendix 2 § 201.00(c) holds:

Vocational adjustment to sedentary work may be expected where the individual has special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work or where age and basic educational competences provide sufficient occupational mobility to adapt to the major segment of unskilled sedentary work. Inability to engage in substantial gainful activity would be indicated where an individual who is restricted to sedentary work because of a severe medically determinable impairment lacks special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work, lacks educational qualifications relevant to most sedentary work (e.g., has a limited education or less) and the individual's age, though not necessarily advanced, is a factor which significantly limits vocational adaptability.

Subsection (g) states that people closely approaching advanced age have limited vocational adaptability. See also §  202.00(c), (d). Vocational adjustment represents the correct inquiry in §§  201.00(c), (f), (g), (h), 202.00(b), (c), (f), 203(c). Vocational adjustment and adaptability is an important part of the step five analysis of the ability to successfully perform other work on a sustained basis. SSR 96-8p, 83-10 (the issue of work adjustment), 85-15, 83-11. The RHAJ definition of temperaments as related to the ability to adapt as including the concept of adjustment puts this category of the nature of work as compliant with the policy articulated by the regulations. 

Aptitudes and temperaments represent functional requirements and relate to the question of vocational adjustment and adaptability. These data points within the DOT dataset correlate with questions that arise in the sequential evaluation process and warrant pointed inquiry in appropriate cases. EM-21065 does not identify an ambiguity in the regulations and is inconsistent with the requirement that adjudicators take administrative notice of the requirements of unskilled work in the national economy. 

This is what happens when an agency chooses to legislate outside of formal or informal rulemaking processes. 

___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them, California Social Security Attorney (January 9, 2025) https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com

The author has been AV-rated since 2000 and listed in Super Lawyers since 2008.

 

EM-21065 -- SSA Does Not Consider GED or Aptitudes -- Oh Really, Part 2

We pick up from the discussion of DPT and Temperaments earlier this week.  EM-21065 says more disturbing and misguided things about GED and aptitudes:

SSA does not use General Education Development (GED), Aptitudes, and frequency counts or percentages in adjudication.

Later, EM-21065 says: 

Only use SVP to determine the demands of work. SSA does not consider GED or Aptitudes to identify the demands of work for disability adjudication in SSA’s disability programs.

Continuing:   

SSA does not consider the descriptors of GED, Aptitudes, Work Situations (Temperaments), or Work Functions (DPT) when searching for a person’s past work or when limiting work demand requirements for a search of occupations for a TSA or occupations to cite for a framework determination or decision. We should not use these features since our policy does not use these descriptors to identify the demands of work for disability adjudication in SSA’s disability programs.

And finally: 

1. SSA does not consider the following information:

General Education Development (GED) ratings. These ratings do not correspond with SSA’s regulatory definitions of unskilled, semiskilled, and skilled work.

Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments). These ratings do not represent functional requirements for work because they reflect the personal interests, natural abilities, and personality characteristics of job incumbents rather than limitations or restrictions resulting from a medically determinable impairment(s), as is required for SSA’s disability programs.

We start with GED, general educational development.  This is a specification of reasoning, mathematics, and language in the DOT trailer with a three digit code.  Appendix C of the DOT describes the category:

General Educational Development embraces those aspects of education (formal and informal) which are required of the worker for satisfactory job performance. This is education of a general nature which does not have a recognized, fairly specific occupational objective. Ordinarily, such education is obtained in elementary school, high school, or college. However, it may be obtained from experience and self-study.

GED describes the educational level required for satisfactory job performance.  These are bona fide occupational qualifications for the integral, essential, and expected job functions.  The statute commands the Commissioner to consider education.  Many unskilled jobs do require a high school education or equivalent.  It is true that GED does not correlate 1:1 to skill level.  

There are 16 DOT codes classified as semi-skilled that require reasoning level 1.  There are 1,887 DOT codes classified as semi-skilled and skilled that require reasoning level 2.  The regulations include in semi-skilled that is not academically challenging:  

A job may be classified as semi-skilled where coordination and dexterity are necessary, as when hands or feet must be moved quickly to do repetitive tasks.

Those are the exceptions.  Of the approximately 10,000 skilled and semi-skilled occupations, the majority require reasoning level 4 or higher.  Nor does correlation have to be 1:1 to be informative about the requirements of work.  

Aptitudes represents a different challenge.  As with temperaments, the aptitudes were not "selected" for inclusion in the SCO.  Aptitudes are part of the DOT dataset defined in the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs.  The RHAJ defines:

Aptitudes: Capacities or abilities required of an individual in order to facilitate the learning of some task or job duty. The II Aptitudes included in this component are defined and discussed in Chapter 9.

There is that pesky description, again: required.  In Chapter 9, the RHAJ expands on the definition:

Aptitudes, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the capacities or specific abilities which an individual must have in order to learn to perform a given work activity. There are II Aptitudes used by USES for job analysis. Nine Aptitudes are measured by the United States Employment Service's General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). Two others, Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination and Color Discrimination, have been added to these for job analysis because they are considered to be occupationally significant. Measurements for these Aptitudes have not been developed for the GATB. 

These are not nice to have, aptitudes are the ability that "an individual must have in order to learn to perform a given work activity."  Employers require aptitudes that a person must have to learn how to perform the BFOQ or essential functions of a job.  Absent those aptitudes, a person is not expected to learn how to do the job.  Aptitudes represent an educational component of work.  

SSA is not the expert agency about the requirements of work.  The Department of Labor is the expert agency about the requirements of work.  When we need information about what is and is not required in the workplace, DOL is the source of that information.  EM-21065 warrants no deference and no respect under controlling court precedent.  

_______________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, EM-21065 -- SSA Does Not Consider GED or Aptitudes -- Oh Really, Part 2, California Social Security Attorney (June 29, 2022) https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com

Office Helper -- Simple and Repetitive -- No on Both Counts

We spent this week, with a brief detour to look at the deference doctrine, addressing the issue of simple, repetitive tasks where the occupation has a reasoning level of 2.  The circuits are split on the question of whether reasoning level 3 has an apparent conflict with a limitation to simple, repetitive tasks.  This series of posts have the intent to establish the point that reasoning level 2 does not end the inquiry but instead establishes a data point requiring further analysis.  Some skilled occupations have a reasoning level of 2 with and without the temperament for repetitive work.  Some unskilled occupations have a reasoning level of 2 and require dealing with people as an important worker function and as a temperament for dealing with people beyond receiving instructions.  We are now ready to tackle the occupation of office helper and its identification as simple, repetitive work.  We start with the DOT:

DOT Narrative: 239.567-010 OFFICE HELPER (clerical) Performs any combination of following duties in business office of commercial or industrial establishment: Furnishes workers with clerical supplies. Opens, sorts, and distributes incoming mail, and collects, seals, and stamps outgoing mail. Delivers oral or written messages. Collects and distributes paperwork, such as records or timecards, from one department to another. Marks, tabulates, and files articles and records. May use office equipment, such as envelope-sealing machine, letter opener, record shaver, stamping machine, and transcribing machine. May deliver items to other business establishments [DELIVERER, OUTSIDE (clerical) 230.663-010]. May specialize in delivering mail, messages, documents, and packages between departments of establishment and be designated Messenger, Office (clerical). May deliver stock certificates and bonds within and between stock brokerage offices and be designated Runner (financial). GOE: 07.07.03 STRENGTH: L GED: R2 M2 L2 SVP: 2 DLU: 81

The first part of the description that belies the simple, repetitive tasks (SRT) mantra is combination.  Office helpers do not perform one task all day long; office helpers perform a combination of job duties all day long.  They furnish; handle incoming mail; they handle the outgoing mail; they act as the conduit for intra-office communication, both oral and written; and they have file clerk responsibilities.  The task elements represent the typical way in which work gets performed in the national economy per the DOT.   The parts of the narrative description following by the word may are not typical work duties.  The DOT describes may functions:

Many definitions contain one or more sentences beginning with the word "May". They describe duties required of workers in this occupation in some establishments but not in others. The word "May" does not indicate that a worker will sometimes perform this task but rather that some workers in different establishments generally perform one of the varied tasks listed. In the example, the three sentences beginning "May notify. . .", "May mount. . .", "May position. . .", are "May" items. Do not confuse "May" items with the "May be designated. . ." sentence which introduces undefined related titles.

 Contrast the may statements with the task statements that precede the may statements:

Task element statements indicate the specific tasks the worker performs to accomplish the overall job purpose described in the lead statement. The sentences in the example beginning with "Turns handwheel . . . ", "Turns screws . . . ", "Sharpens doctor . . . ", "Aligns doctor . . . ", "Dips color . . . ", etc. are all task element statements. They indicate how the worker actually carries out the job duties.

 The SCO provides a better understanding of the occupation:

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

CL

BA

ST

KN

CO

CW

RE

HA

FI

FE

TA

HE

TS

NA

FA

DP

AC

CV

FV

N

N

O

N

N

N

F

F

F

N

O

O

N

F

N

N

N

N

N

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:

WE

CO

HO

WT

NO

VI

AT

MV

EL

HI

RA

EX

TX

OT

N

N

N

N

3

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Frequent use of the hands; occasional speaking; occasional hearing; frequent near acuity; office noise.   Nothing surprising, just data.  The electronic files, the data described in the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (Dept. of Labor 1991) provides more data points and moves the analysis toward that non-SRT conclusion.

APTITUDES:

G	V	N	S	P	Q	K	F	M	E	C
3	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	3	5	5

TEMPERAMENTS: V

The aptitudes for average general learning ability, clerical perception, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity suggest that a third of population never had the innate ability to perform work and a person with impaired cognitive, perception, or dexterity cannot.  The presence of significant dexterity requirements also suggests that this occupation rests at the high end of that unskilled rating.  The temperament rating of V does require further exploration.  The RHAJ defines V as:

Preform a VARIETY of Duties: Involves frequent changes of tasks involving different aptitudes, technologies, procedures, working conditions, physical demands, or degrees of attentiveness without loss of efficiency or composure. The involvement of the worker in two or more work fields may be a clue that this temperament is required.

Office helpers shift seamlessly from task to task without loss of efficiency or composure.  A limitation to occasional changes in a work setting would eliminate this occupation from consideration. 

The last sentence of the V-definition brings out the issue that I tend to ignore in examining unskilled work -- work field and MPSMS codes.  The OccuCollect DOT-SCO summary report lists the codes for the data:

MPSMS: 890 899 0
WF: 231 011 221

We have to go back to the RHAJ to define the three work fields.

231 VERBAL RECORDING-RECORD KEEPINGPreparing. keeping, sorting, and distributing records and communications, primarily verbal in character but including symbol devices, to communicate and systematize information and data by methods not specifically defined elsewhere. as in Developing-Printing (202), Imprinting (192), Photographing (201), Printing (191), and Stock Checking (22 I). Distinguish from Numerical Recording-Record Keeping (232), where records are also involved but the primary activity is computation.

011 MATERIAL MOVING
Conveying materials manually and by use of machines and equipment, such as cranes, hoists, conveyors, industrial trucks, elevators, winches, and handtrucks. Distinguish from Transporting (013), which involves conveyance of passengers and materials by common carrier.

221 STOCK CHECKINGReceiving, storing. issuing. requisitioning, and accounting for stores of materials and materials in use; involves the physical handling of the materials. Representative job activities covered by this work field include processing records and keeping materials on hand in balance with operational needs; assigning locations and space to items according to size, quantity, and type; verifying quantity, identification, condition, and value of items and the physical handling of items, such as binning, picking, stacking, and counting; receiving. checking. and delivering items; verifying completeness of incoming and outgoing shipments; preparing and otherwise committing stocks for shipment; keeping and conducting inventory of merchandise, materials, stocks, and supplies; filling orders and requisitions; and issuing tools, equipment, and materials.

Following the rabbit down the trail, we need to understand the definition of work fields

Work Fields. a component of Work Performed. are categories of technologies that reflect how work gets done and what gets done as a result of the work activities of a job: the purpose of the job. There are 96 Work Fields identified for use by the USES for classification of all jobs in the economy in terms of what gets done on the job.

Work Fields range from the specific to the general and are organized into homogeneous groups. based on related technologies or objectives. such as the movement of materials. the fabrication of products, the use of data. and the provision of services. Each Work Field is identified by a three-digit code, a brief descriptive title, and a definition. In many cases. a comment is included which enlarges upon the definition and limits or extends the application of the Work Field. Also, cross-references are frequently included which distinguish one Work Field from other related Work Fields

Why aren't Office Helpers simple, repetitive tasks:  (1) they perform a combination of duties; (2) they occasionally interact verbally with other people; (3) they perform a variety of duties; (4) they must have the ability to change duties without loss of efficiency or productivity; (5) they work in three different work fields; and (6) they work with three different categories of unrelated technologies or objectives.  Office Helper is not simple and it is not repetitive (substitute routine here for your case).

Aptitudes and the DOT codes

Appearing at a hearing in Seattle in front of a judge that doesn't know how many bags of tricks I carry with me.  Claimant has manipulative problems, describes herself as clumsy and the medical/therapy records bear out the lack of dexterity.  The ALJ wants to quantify the impairment in terms of occasional and frequent fine and gross manipulation (fingering and handling).  That doesn't cut it for this case because those terms do not qualitatively describe the problem.

The Department of Labor released the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs and accidentally omitted chapter 9 -- aptitudes.  These 36 pages appear in the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs.

Aptitudes, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the capacities or specific abilities which an individual must have in order to learn to perform a given work activity. There are 11 Aptitudes used by USES for job analysis.

The aptitudes are:

G - General Learning Ability
V - Verbal Aptitude
N - Numerical Aptitude
S - Spatial Aptitude
P - Fonn Perception
Q - Clerical Perception
K - Motor Coordination
F - Finger Dexterity
M - Manual Dexterity
E - Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination
C - Color Discrimination

Unlike other rating scales used in the DOT and its companions, the aptitudes use 1 as the highest level of function and 5 as the lowest:

1. The top 10 percent of the population. This segment of the population possesses an extremely high degree of the aptitude.
2. The highest third exclusive of the top 10 percent of the population. This segment of the population possesses an above average or high degree of the aptitude.
3. The middle third of the population. This segment of the population possesses a medium degree of the aptitude ranging from slightly below to slightly above average.
4. The lowest third exclusive of the bottom 10 percent of the population. This segment of the population possesses a below average or low degree of the aptitude.
5. The lowest 10 percent of the population. This segment of the population possesses a negligible degree of the aptitude.

We are concerned about our claimant with a manipulative problem with Finger Dexterity and Manual Dexterity.

F - FINGER DEXTERITY: The ability to move the fingers and manipul. small objects with the fingers rapidly or accurately.

M - MANUAL DEXTERITY: The ability to move the hands easily and skillfully Ability to work with the hands in placing and turning motions.

The RHAJ gives examples of what average (level 3) means for these and other aptitudes.  So please Judge, don't tell me to use vocationally relevant terms in my cross until you have read the statistics and the taxonomy set forth in the RHAJ.  The aptitudes for each occupation -- we find them in every professional regurgitation of the DOT and its companions, i.e. West and SkillTran.  When I ask the vocational expert to assume below average dexterity, I am referring to the use of those rated and defined terms in the RHAJ and the descriptions of each occupation found in West and the various SkillTran products.

Drop the mic ... walk away.