Markers -- Truly a Problematic Occupation -- Dissected with the ORS

Residual functional capacity for light work, the vocational expert identifies marker (DOT 209.587.034).  The DOT says:

209.587-034 MARKER (retail trade; wholesale tr.) alternate titles: marking clerk; merchandise marker; price marker; ticket maker

    Marks and attaches price tickets to articles of merchandise to record price and identifying information: Marks selling price by hand on boxes containing merchandise, or on price tickets. Ties, glues, sews, or staples price ticket to each article. Presses lever or plunger of mechanism that pins, pastes, ties, or staples ticket to article. May record number and types of articles marked and pack them in boxes. May compare printed price tickets with entries on purchase order to verify accuracy and notify supervisor of discrepancies. May print information on tickets, using ticket-printing machine [TICKETER (any industry); TICKET PRINTER AND TAGGER (garment)]. 
GOE: 05.09.03 STRENGTH: L GED: R2 M1 L1 SVP: 2 DLU: 77

The occupation clearly has a data-people-things issue that warrants exploration for a claimant with a limited or marginal education.  But that is not where the focus goes ... today.

Markers belong to the O*NET group labeled marking clerks (O*NET 43-5081.02).  The last two digits, the 02, tell us that this occupational group is a subset of a SOC group, in this case 43-5081.

A short digression is warranted here.  The SOC has 840 occupational groups that include 1,110 O*NET occupations.  The 840 SOC groups belong to major groups, minor groups, broad occupations, and then the detailed SOC occupations.  The O*NET provides 269 further refined detailed data by breaking out the detailed SOC codes.  If we are paying attention, the numbers don't add up -- there is one exceptional case.  That makes 1,110.  The exceptional case is biologists and we don't care about that kind of skilled work.

Back to markers -- O*NET 43-5081.02 is part of 43-5081.00, stock clerks and order fillers.  That group includes stock clerks, sales floor; marking clerks; stock clerks 0 stockroom, warehouse, or storage yard; and order fillers, wholesale and retail sales.  Stock clerks and order fillers is part of the broader group of material recording clerks per the OOH.  The other SOC codes in this group include production, planning, and expediting clerks; shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks; sock clerks and order fillers; and weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping.  All the occupations in this group have a typical entry-level education of high school diploma or equivalent.  This 2016 version of the OOH constitutes a change from the 2014 version where BLS took the position that stock clerks and order fillers had no educational requirement.  That goes in the back pocket.

Now that we have the basic information, we need to figure out if light work exists for markers.  Start with the BLS ORS  Go to the multi-screen data search.  In the text box, search for stock clerks.  Select stock clerks and order fillers (740).  On the next form, we select physical requirement.  Now we get to choose between physical activities.  Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select maximum weight lifted/carried.  The next screen gives six choices for the mean, the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile.  We only need the 10th but we have to educate so select the 10th, 25th, and 50th percentiles by holding the CTRL key down and clicking on those choices.  Select next and on the next three screens select the only choice given, civilian workers and all workers.  We now have a screen with the three reports we want and the option to retrieve data -- do it.

We now have three reports: ORUP1000074000000234; ORUP1000074000000235; and ORUP1000074000000236. The maximum weight lifted by stock clerks and order fillers at the 10th percentile is 30 pounds; at the 25th and 50th percentiles is 50 pounds. Click on the XLSX link to pull the spread sheet report:

Occupational Requirements Survey
Original Data Value
Series Id:	ORUP1000074000000234
Not seasonally adjusted
Series Title:	Civilian workers; stock clerks and order fillers; pounds maximum weight lifted/carried (10th percentile)
Occupation:	Stock Clerks and Order Fillers
Requirement:	Physical Requirement
Category:	Maximum weight lifted/carried
Estimate:	Pounds maximum weight lifted/carried (10th Percentile)
Ownership:	Civilian workers
Industry:	All workers
Job Characteristic:	All workers
Years:	2016 to 2016
Year	Period	Estimate Value	Standard Error
2016	Annual	30.00	5.70

Now that we have the report numbers, we can go straight to the BLS Data Viewer and pull each report.

Of the 1,8 million to 2.0 million stock clerks and order fillers, less than 10% could ever lift less than 30 pounds maximum during the day. Given that the maximum weight didn't change from the 25th to the 50th percentile, how does the witness know where to draw the percentile line?

The four O*NET subgroups inside of stock clerks and order fillers contain 38 DOT codes. Of those 38 DOT codes, five are light and unskilled; three are sedentary and require skills; 17 are light and require skills; two are medium and unskilled; two are medium and require skills; one is heavy and unskilled; and four are heavy and require skills.

The data lead to a criticism of Job Browser Pro. When it cross-indexes markers to specific industries, it aggregates. Most of reported jobs are in the grocery store and general merchandise store industries. In the first group, JBP assumes that the light unskilled marker represents 25% of the intersection, or 106,755 jobs. In the latter, JBP assumes that the light unskilled marker represents 50% of the intersection, or 290,030 jobs. That aggregation is probably wrong. There are more stock clerks, meat clerks, and order fillers than markers -- a whole lot more of the medium and probably more of the semi-skilled order fillers.

When we dig deep into the data, we find holes in VE testimony and relied upon sources. Don't let the VE testify to hundreds of thousands of markers for a person limited to light work. Challenge everything. Our clients have a half million dollar case riding on it.