One of the main ways the Social Security Administration (SSA) determines whether or not an individual applying for disability is entitled to benefits is by evaluating if she has sufficient residual capacity that would allow her to work in any occupation generally available in the economy, given her education and experience. In order to make this judgement, the SSA requires up-to-date information about existing occupations, including their prevalence and the physical, mental, environmental, and educational requirements. Amazingly, SSA is still using an information source that originated in the Great Depression when the economy was primarily industrial, and work was mainly physical; this source, with a listing of over 10,000 detailed occupations, industry by industry, largely in the manufacturing sector, was last updated, albeit only partially, more than 30 years ago. There is no reflection of the economy’s shift to the service sector, the widespread attainment of high school and even college education, the mental aspects of work, later retirements, the common use of automation and electronic technologies and communications, or varied work schedules. For example, SSA’s listing includes occupations such as phonograph cartridge assembler and record-changer assembler and tester, but not roles like solar photovoltaic electrician, call center representative, or web page designer (although it does include wood-web-weaving-machine operator).

SSA, somewhat belatedly, recognized this incongruity around 15 years ago and commissioned another government agency, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), to survey businesses and governments on the current job requirements of about 1000 broader categories of occupations, consistent with the current government classification and data collection system. This survey reflects the more modern view of labor, recognizing that narrow definitions of occupations do not capture the fluidity of a changing, largely non-unionized, market economy and the flexibility of workers’ innate capacities. Thus far, SSA has spent more than $300 million on this complex survey and the first full results became available in 2020. Indeed, by January 2021, SSA had internally completed a comprehensive regulation based on this new data source to update and simplify its complex rules for evaluating the vocational aspects of disability benefit adjudication. Yet, amazingly again, SSA has yet to employ this new BLS data or issue a new regulation to enable it to do so.

Naturally, SSA has come into criticism for this dereliction from former officials (including me), the media, Congress and other stakeholders. Yet, when the new SSA Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, was asked earlier this year at a Congressional hearing about the use of the BLS data, he said he wanted to chuck the whole thing and start over, without giving an alternative or a reason. Perhaps this waste of taxpayer resources and agency time did not go over well in various circles. So, last week SSA stated it “continues to analyze data from the BLS’ . . . survey, which will inform future updates,” without, however, giving a timetable. Also, in an unusual administrative move—rather than a regulatory one—SSA removed 114 occupations from its current list, citing limited job numbers, without providing a complete analysis or estimates of costs or benefits. This latter change got considerable favorable attention from the media and advocates.

A closer examination of the occupations removed, however, leaves one perplexed because it includes many thriving and well-numbered occupations while omitting others that are not, like the phonograph cartridge assembler example mentioned above. Historians, geographers, models, industrial organization psychologists, genealogists, cooks, ranchers, paperhangers, motorboat operators, and audiovisual technicians are now considered by SSA as isolated, obsolete, and insignificant occupations. SSA does explain, though mechanically, how it arrived at this nonsensical conclusion. It seems to be based in part on the mistaken assumption that, like lobster fishermen, people working in these occupations cannot move around adjacent regions or even across the country. In other words, SSA assumes that New York fashion industry models don’t move to Hollywood to pursue studio jobs.

Clearly, this ill-considered and hasty change by SSA represents shoddy analysis for public relations, and not serious policy. There is always the possibility that some, such as state governments that pay Medicaid benefits—where eligibility is partly controlled by SSA—or others with legal standing could sue SSA to compel the use of the BLS data. A quicker, more efficient and direct route would be for Congress to act more aggressively in its oversight responsibilities, even to the extent of holding some of SSA’s budget back until a new vocational modernization regulation is issued and the new data is put to use.

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