ORS - Occupational Requirements Survey: The New DOT?

After SSA closed the excellent work of the Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel (OIDAP) in 2012, SSA began funding a group within the U.S. Department of Labor, National Compensation Survey to investigate whether or not this group of job analysts could collect data that SSA needs to have in order to make claims adjudication decisions using the SOC and/or O*NET occupational coding system. The effort is intended to replace the aging Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), last updated in 1991, but about 80% of which has not been updated since 1977. The effort is formally known as the Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS).

Replacement of the DOT is a tsunami-like shift in the foundations of occupational definition. From the incredible detail (sometimes too much) of the 12,761 occupational definitions in the DOT, the level of occupational precision will be reduced to either 974 unique O*NET occupations or even to only 848 civilian Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) definitions.

Follow the development process from here - links are provided below to relevant resources.

Public comments on the new ORS Data Collection Forms:

• Comments submitted in 2014
• All Comments submitted by SkillTRAN re: ORS