Crossing Guards -- Clearly Part-Time

Vocational experts identify crossing guard as a viable occupation for the claimant limited to occasional handling.  Vocational expert claims between 20,000 and 74,000 jobs.  What do we do?

This is a problem.  Patton v. Berryhill, (D. S.D. 2018); Walker v Berryhill, (W.D. Wash 2018); Toloai v. Berryhill, (C.D. Cal. 2018).  We, as the professional representatives, must preserve the issue for appeal.

Q:  Aren't these jobs part-time, mornings and afternoons when children come and go to school?
A:  I already reduced the number of that.  There are 74,000 jobs in the nation and I reduced to 20,000 to account for just the full-time jobs.  

The next question has to be, "How do you know that beyond the amorphous and slippery '30 years of experience.'"  Most ALJs and the courts will allow this kind of garbage testimony, after all the VE is the expert.  The SOC describes the occupation (from OccuCollect):

DOT: 371.567-010
SOC: 33-9091
O*NET URL: https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/33-9091.00

Strength:  L

SVP: 2
PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

Cl

Ba

St

Kn

Co

Cw

Re

Ha

Fi

Fe

Ta

He

TS

NA

FA

DP

Ac

CV

FV

N

N

N

N

N

N

F

O

N

N

F

F

N

F

O

N

N

O

O

REACHING: Frequently
Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction. In Part A, the rating for the Reaching component appears eighth in the first Physical Demand column under the vertical heading Re.
 HANDLING: Occasionally
Seizing, holding, grasping, turning, or otherwise working with hand or hands. Fingers are involved only to the extent that they are an extension of the hand, such as to tum a switch or shift automobile gears. In Part A, the rating for the Handling component appears ninth in the first Physical Demand column under the vertical heading Ha.
 FINGERING: Not Present
Picking, pinching, or otherwise working primarily with fingers rather than with the whole hand or arm as in handling. In Part A, the rating for the Fingering component appears tenth (last) in the first Physical Demand column under the vertical heading Fi.
 Selected Characteristics of Occupations (Dept. of Labor 1993)

The O*NET OnLine link gives the information.

Structural Job Characteristics	%	Response
Duration of Typical Work Week — Number of hours typically worked in one week.	0	More than 40 hours
	0	40 hours
	100	Less than 40 hours

Environmental	%	Response
Work Schedules — How regular are the work schedules for this job?	66	Regular (established routine, set schedule)
	14	Irregular (changes with weather conditions, production demands, or contract duration)
	20	Seasonal (only during certain times of the year)

All part-time and most have a non-seasonal regular schedule.  The work context reports come from incumbent surveys and does not break down the data beyond what we see.  How many occupations exist in this SOC group (from the O*NET custom reports, crosswalk (not currently available on OccuCollect):

Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)371.567-010    Guard, School-Crossing
371.667-010    Crossing Tender
372.667-022    Flagger

The OOH (from OccuCollect) confirms that these occupations are unskilled and do not require a high school education equivalency.  

Now that we have in information, we continue the cross-examination:

Q:  How many job analyses have you performed for this occupation?
Q:  When did you perform them/it?
Q:  How many labor market surveys have you performed for this occupation?
Q:  When did you perform them/it?
Q:  Does your method for estimating the number of crossing guard jobs meet the OMB standards?
Q:  How does your experience compare with the data collection from the Department of Labor?
Q:  If I represent to you that the DOL states that 100% of crossing guards, as well as crossing tenders and flaggers, work part--time, would you agree that DOL's report is more trustworthy than your experience based on X job analysis and Y labor market surveys?

Close with, "the claimant (please use the person's name) requests seven days to submit the DOL reports to rebut the surprise testimony given today by the vocational expert."

Just for fun, the employment projections (hyperlinked from OccuCollect) state that there are 10,700 crossing guards in state, local, and private educational services.

Educational services; state, local, and private	10.7
Educational services; state, local, and private	10.7
Elementary and secondary schools; state, local, and private	10.6
Elementary and secondary schools; private	0.3
Elementary and secondary schools; local	10.3

Raise the issue and preserve the client's rights on appeal.