Why Does Social Security Keep Relying Upon Ancient Occupational Data?

    Andrew Van Dam at the Washington Post has written a "Department of Data" piece on the Social Security Administration's continuing reliance upon incredibly old data in the adjudication of disability claims. He asks whether the Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics could be the answer. Van Dam gives examples from the ORS but concentrates only upon the heaviest and lightest jobs in the economy and the ones that require the most and least training. That's fine but Social Security needs to concentrate upon those jobs that have both low physical AND mental demands. That's where the action is at Social Security.

The ORS?

     I just saw that the National Association of Disability Representatives (NADR) has scheduled training on the Occupational Requirements Survey. They ask if it might be a replacement for the long outdated Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) that Social Security uses. This is the first I've heard of the ORS. Anyone else have info on it?