The final step (Step 5) of the Agency’s disability determination process is to determine if an applicant can perform any work with their limitations. At the hearing level, and the judge will ask an expert, known as a Vocational Expert (VE), to testify to jobs that the claimant could perform in the economy. VEs must rely on Social Security’s database of available jobs, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), to come to their conclusion. The DOT has received considerable critique from lawyers, advocates, and even judges about its shortcomings. Chief among the complaints is that the DOT has not been overhauled since 1977 and was last updated in 1991. This means many jobs, some of which no longer exist, can be cited as valid job alternatives and used to deny an individual benefits. In 2012, the Agency began building a new database, the Occupational Information System (OIS), but 12 years and $259 million later, nothing has rolled out and there is no projected end date.
On June 22, 2024, the Agency signaled that it is willing to make changes in the interim. This update, the first in more than 30 years, will prevent VEs from citing 114 jobs currently in the DOT. The Agency concluded that these jobs exist in such few numbers today, if at all, that they cannot be used to support a finding of “not disabled.” The Agency also identified 13
other jobs that will be barred from use unless a VE can present evidence to why the job is not obsolete in a specific case.
The list of 114 banned jobs includes canary breeder, scuba diver, and reptile farmer. The 13 jobs that require additional evidence from the VE include nut sorter, microfilm processor, and dance hall host. While it’s not a complete solution, removing these outdated jobs is a move in the right direction for providing claimants with a more fair disability determination process.