Dictionary of Occupational Titles

When it is used

DOT remains a core reference in vocational evaluation, Social Security disability determinations, and transferable skills analysis.

Step-by-step

1. Identify the DOT code for the occupation at issue
2. Review the strength rating, physical demands, environmental conditions, and SVP
3. Cross-reference with O*NET for updated occupational information
4. Apply restrictions to determine suitability

Data sources

• DOT (published 1991, selected supplements)
• SCODDOT (Selected Characteristics of Occupations Defined in the DOT)

What the DOT records for an occupation

Each DOT entry describes one occupation as it was observed by Department of Labor job analysts: a title and a nine-digit code, a narrative of the tasks performed, and a set of coded ratings. The ratings are what make the DOT useful to a vocational expert. Strength is rated from sedentary to very heavy according to the weight lifted and the amount of standing and walking. Specific vocational preparation records how long a typical worker needs to learn the occupation, on a scale that runs from a short demonstration to more than ten years. The general educational development ratings describe the reasoning, mathematical and language demands of the work. A companion volume adds the frequency of climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, crawling, reaching, handling, fingering and feeling, the environmental conditions, and the aptitudes the work draws on.

How a vocational expert uses the ratings

The ratings let an expert compare the demands of an occupation with the restrictions a physician has placed on the evaluee. A worker limited to lifting at the light level and to occasional stooping can be matched against the strength and postural ratings of past work and of candidate occupations, and the match is stated in the DOT's own terms, which an opposing expert can check line by line. The specific vocational preparation rating anchors transferable skills analysis: skills transfer within and below the preparation level of the past work, and an expert who proposes an occupation above that level has to show where the additional preparation came from.

In Social Security adjudication the DOT is the reference the agency's own rulings name, and a vocational expert who testifies at a hearing is expected to identify the DOT code for each occupation cited and to explain any conflict between the testimony and the DOT's ratings. In civil litigation the DOT is one reference among several, and the expert pairs it with O*NET for current task descriptions and with wage and employment data for the labor market.

What the DOT cannot tell you

The DOT describes occupations as they were performed at the time of the last revision, so it says nothing about jobs that did not exist then, and its descriptions of jobs that have changed with technology can be dated. It records the demands of an occupation, not of a particular job with a particular employer, so it cannot confirm that a given employer would accommodate a restriction. It carries no wage data and no employment counts, and it says nothing about whether an occupation exists in the evaluee's labor market; those questions are answered with the wage and employment statistics and with labor market survey. An expert who cites the DOT states which of these gaps the analysis fills from another source.

Limitations

The DOT has not been comprehensively updated since 1991. Best practice is to cross-reference with O*NET, particularly for newer occupations.

Admissibility

DOT-grounded opinions are widely accepted, with courts often expecting cross-referencing with O*NET where appropriate.