Selected Characteristics of Occupations

The Social Security Administration was particularly interested in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the SCO for the purpose of establishing the existence of jobs that a claimant for disability benefits could otherwise perform despite his or her mental and/or physical impairments during disability adjudication within the Social Security Administration.

The Dictionary of Occupational Titles was insufficient for disability adjudication at the Social Security Administration because it did not include enough detail about the physical and environmental demands of the jobs listed therein.

In response to Kerner and the underling demand for rationality inherent in District Court review, the SSA undertook a search for vocational evidence to support its disability determinations.

Microfilmed data about occupations furnished by the Labor Department was punched into IBM cards by the Social Security Administration's Division of Accounting Operations.

In addition to the DOT codes and Guide for Occupational Information Group codes, the SCO provides the following: SVP Specific Vocational Preparation Physical Demands Environmental Demands These data are arranged in the SCO in long columns of rows of letters and numbers, which may seem fairly incomprehensible to the uninitiated, such as