BLS Releases the 2019 ORS Data Set

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the 2019 Occupational Requirements Survey on May 28, 2020. It is always good to have new data describing the national economy that meets OMB standards.  The problem is that Labor changed the Standard Occupational Classification system in 2018.  The ORS is the first Labor publication to use the structure on data.  That leads to some awkward incompatibility problems.  Awkward, not impossible.  We have the crosswalks as part of O*NET OnLine. 

Because Labor has divided, combined, and otherwise rearranged about 100 SOC codes, the 2018 data set is not usable in the 2018 SOC system.  The 2019 data started over.  The 2019 data set is back to 2016 as a first round of data collection, BLS started over.  The 2019 data set covers fewer occupational groups compared to the 2018 data set.  The 2019 data set did reinsert the cognitive category so it now addresses that contact with others category.  

Going forward, representatives should use the 2019 data set when it speaks to an occupational group.  Any use should carry the caveat that presentation uses the 2019 ORS data set based on the 2018 SOC system for occupational requirements and 2018 job numbers incidence found in the 2018 Occupational Outlook Handbook and/or the 2019 Occupational Employment Statistics based on the 2010 SOC system.   This process will take about a year or two to level out as the rest of BLS catches up to the ORS in using the 2018 SOC system.  

The Employment and Training Administration should follow suit in the next year in updating the O*NET to follow the 2018 SOC system.  The O*NET has announced that version 25.1 slated for release in November will report data using the 2018 SOC system. (For those with long memories or research skills, the Employment and Training Administration is the same arm of Labor that published the DOT).  

One quick highlight:  Stock Clerks and Order Fillers (SOC 43-5081) has changed its designation to 53-7065.  The O*NET detailed groups for Stock Clerks, Sales Floor (O*NET 43-5081.01), Marking Clerks (O*NET 43-5081.02), Stock Clerks - Stockroom, Warehouse, or Storage Yard (O*NET 43-5081.03), and Order Fillers, Wholesale and Retail Sales (O*NET 43-5081.04) will retire.  The expected 2020 O*NET release in November will report occupational characteristics for Stock Clerks and Order Fillers but not for the four detailed groups.  This is the occupational group that contains marker.  The new ORS data does not support the existence of 200,000 markers in the category of marking clerks.  Those jobs require medium and heavy exertion.  Look for that dissection coming here, soon.  

One quick low point: major group of Production Occupations contains 110 detailed occupations in nine minor groups.  The 2019 ORS reports the summary category of Production Occupations and three detailed occupations.  OccuCollect recommends using the 2018 data set for the analysis of characteristics of work in those detailed occupations.  Lumping supervisors in the data set with helpers makes the data to divergent for tiered or layered analysis.

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SUGGESTED CITATION:

Lawrence Rohlfing, BLS Releases the 2019 ORS Data Set, California Social Security Attorney (June 5, 2020) 

https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com/2020/06/bls-releases-2019-ors-data-set.html