How Much of Production Workers, All Other, Requires Medium Exertion?

The category of production workers, all other, continues to be a favorite of vocational experts to identify in response to questions from the ALJ corps.  We have BLS/OES data suggesting 251,670 jobs in the occupational group as of May 2015.  We have the Occupational Outlook Handbook suggesting 236,200 jobs as of 2014.  And we have the O*NET OnLine repeating the OOH number of jobs and refraining from giving any data about job requirements because the group is too large and too disparate.

Today we ask about the 1,590 or 1,526 accumulation of occupations -- just how many of the jobs require medium exertion?  Using the 2010 SOC codes that carved out 61 light, medium, and heavy occupations, both unskilled and skilled, to create food processing worker (51-3099), we have 1,526 DOT codes inside of 51-9199.  Of that number, 897 require sedentary or light exertion.  The sedentary unskilled range represents 52 occupations.  The light unskilled range represents 390 DOT codes.  The rest (455 occupations) are semi-skilled or skilled.  That leaves 629 DOT codes requiring medium exertion or more.

We do have some good news.  Labor continues to work on better data for the replacement to the DOT.  BLS Data Finder now provides access to current data.  We look for production AND worker AND medium to get the answer.

Data extracted on: Jul 31, 2017 (6:35:18 PM)

Occupational Requirements Survey

Series Title	:	Civilian workers; % of production workers, all other; strength is medium work
Series ID	:	ORUP1000031A00000663
Seasonality	:	Not Seasonally Adjusted
Survey Name	:	Occupational Requirements Survey
Measure Data Type	:	Percentage
Industry	:	All workers
Occupation	:	Production Workers, All Other
Class of Worker	:	All workers
Requirements	:	Physical Requirement
Type of cases	:	Strength

Latest Observation:  

Annual 2016 

 82.2

Annual 2016 - Annual 2016 

Minimum Value: Annual 2016 

 82.2

 
Maximum Value: Annual 2016 

 82.2

 
Data Availability: 2016 - 2016

 So there we have it -- 82.2% of the JOBS in production workers all other require medium exertion.  Of the 17.8% left: some are light, sedentary, heavy, or very heavy; some are unskilled, semi-skilled, or skilled.  The number of jobs that are not medium cannot exceed 45,049.  

Now tell me again that there are 236,000 small products assembler I in the nation.  Paint me as tired of vocational experts not doing there homework.