Furniture Rental Consultants 295-357-018

Another -- you have got to be kidding me, right?  We are not allowed to ask a question like that during a Social Security administrative hearing.  But we want to ask, because the identification of the furniture rental consultant as representing 40,000 jobs in the nation doesn't make sense.  The reason that it doesn't make sense is that our commonsense is correct. 

Look at the occupation as it exists in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.  We can find the information on the web.  Here.  The occupation exists in the retail trade industry and it rents furniture and accessories. 

I rent cars on a regular basis -- several a year if not more.  If I wanted to fly or float, I would rent a plane or a boat, or just buy a ticket.  But I haven't rented furniture except when in college and don't know many people that do.  It isn't a big industry from a lay perspective.  But that is the beauty of taking judicial or administrative notice; we don't have to be experts to look stuff up.  Let's keep looking stuff up. 

Counter and rental clerks form a group of occupations because of their similar job duties under the O*NET as the Labor replacement to the DOT.  We can look at a detailed description of the occupation on the O*NET OnLine.  The work requires standing:

Spend Time Standing — How much does this job require standing?

15    Continually or almost continually 32    More than half the time 34    About half the time 13    Less than half the time

 
The work is semi-skilled or less. 

"SVP Range

(Below 4.0)"

So for those sit-stand, light, and unskilled jobs, this remains a candidate.  But honestly, how many are there? 

The O*NET reports 442,000 counter and rental clerk jobs, in 24 different occupations.  One of the 24 is the furniture rental consultant.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook reports 442,100. 

The OOH and the O*NET rely on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The occupation-industry matrix lists all the Standard Occupational Classification groups.  The line for counter and rental clerks, SOC group 41-2021 generates an excel spreadsheet that breaks down the occupational group by industry.

The employment projections for 41-2021 agree -- the occupational group has 442,100 jobs.  Almost half are in the real estate and rental and leasing industry sector (NAICS 53000).  The employment projections state that the retail trade sector (NAICS 44-450000) has 87,900 jobs.  That is the industry group specified by the DOT, so let's stick with that. 

Within the retail trade sector, 46,500 jobs exist in the motor vehicle and parts dealers industry group (NAICS 441000).  The furniture and home furnishing stores employ 600.  (NAICS 442000).  Within the industry group, counter and rental clerks make up 0.1% to 0.2% of industry employment. 

Code

Title

Employment

Percent of industry

TE1000

Total employment

442.1

0.3

44-450	Retail trade	87.9	0.6
441000	Motor vehicle and parts dealers	46.5	2.5

442000	Furniture and home furnishings stores	0.6	0.1
442100	Furniture stores	0.5	0.2

County Business Patterns provides industry employment data.  Sector 44 for retail trade (turn off LFO and noise flags) counts nationwide employment for the industry:

Compare Areas	NAICS code	NAICS code description	Paid employees for pay period including March 12 (number)	First-quarter payroll ($1,000)	Annual payroll ($1,000)	Total establishments

	442	Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores	429,073	3,026,406	12,836,584	50,595
	4421	Furniture Stores	198,220	1,668,073	7,037,786	23,567
	44211	Furniture Stores	198,220	1,668,073	7,037,786	23,567
	442110	Furniture Stores	198,220	1,668,073	7,037,786	23,567
	4422	Home Furnishings Stores	230,853	1,358,333	5,798,798	27,028
	44221	Floor Covering Stores	63,011	570,982	2,513,664	10,763
	442210	Floor Covering Stores	63,011	570,982	2,513,664	10,763
	44229	Other Home Furnishings Stores	167,842	787,351	3,285,134	16,265

Applying the employment projections percentage of employment yields 429 jobs as a furniture rental clerk; 386 of them in the furniture stores. 

That's it.  There are not and cannot be 40,000 or even 10,000 furniture rental clerks in the national economy.  There are less than 500.