And Now for the Bad News -- Really Bad News

I had a recent hearing with vocational witness Skylar De Pedro. This is the first time I had a vocational witness testify to a straight Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with an Occupation Requirements Survey (ORS) reduction for Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) and exertion. I doubt it will be the last. 

If we examine general office clerks (SOC 43-9061) for full-time, unskilled, sedentary work, the www.occucollect calculator reports:

43-9061 - Office Clerks, General

Job Number Calculations
# of Jobs (OEWS 2023)	% Full-Time (O*NET 29.1)	# Full-Time
2,496,370	74%	1,847,314
# of Jobs	% Unskilled (ORS 2023)	# Unskilled
1,847,314	35.7%	659,491
# of Jobs	% Sedentary (ORS 2023)	# Sedentary
659,491	81.1%	534,847

Using the BLS-endorsed methodology, and applying the O*NET part-time data with the 2023 OEWS and 2023 ORS data, the estimate is over half a million jobs. That is a significant number by any stretch. We confirm that with the ORS report:

43-9061 - Office clerks, general

Education, Training, And Experience (values are Percentages or Days)

Occupational Requirements – specific vocational preparation	2018	2023	2024
specific vocational preparation is short demonstration only	4.4	2	1.1
specific vocational preparation is beyond short demonstration through 1 month	31.3	33.7	44.6

Physical Demands (values are Percentages, Pounds, or Hours)

Occupational Requirements – strength, exertion	2018	2023	2024
strength required is sedentary	73.3	81.1	84.6

And the O*NET:

Reporting O*NET Dataset 29.2

Custom Report for: 43-9061.00 - Office Clerks, General

Structural Job Characteristics	%	Response
Duration of Typical Work Week — Number of hours typically worked in one week.	15	More than 40 hours
	59	40 hours
	26	Less than 40 hours

 We don't reasonably expect to win a full range of sedentary medical-vocational profile case. That requires that we drill down in the data. Occasional contact with others as defined in the O*NET knocks the job number from over 500,000 jobs to about 10,000 jobs:

Interpersonal Relationships	%	Response
Contact With Others — How much does this job require the worker to be in contact with others (face-to-face, by telephone, or otherwise) in order to perform it?	82	Constant contact with others
	14	Contact with others most of the time
	2	Contact with others about half the time
	0	Occasional contact with others
	2	No contact with others

A limitation to simple work tasks (those not requiring a high school education or equivalent) out of the ORS data sets is not as dramatic an erosion:

Occupational Requirements – education	2018	2023	2024
no minimum education requirement	15.2	18.1	10.9
no minimum education required, and literacy is not required	--	<0.5	<0.5
no minimum education required, and literacy is required	--	<25	10.9
minimum education level is a high school diploma	78.7	74.4	84.1
minimum education level is a high school vocational degree	-	<0.5	--

Further erosion of the number of jobs depends on variables in the medical-vocational profile. Postural demands are not likely in sedentary work. Manipulation (gross, fine, and keyboarding) limitations will significantly erode the occupational base. Limitations in speech, hearing, and vision will have a dramatic, if not preclusive, impact on general office clerks. 

Once the witness uses the BLS-endorsed methodology for estimating the size of the exertion-skill occupational base, using the rest of the data is wide open. Use the data sets, plural intended, as the basis for cross and rebuttal evidence. 

Never surrender. 

___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, And Now for the Bad News -- Really Bad News, California Social Security Attorney (March 25, 2025)  https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com

The author has been AV-rated since 2000 and listed in Super Lawyers since 2008.