News & Information

CCH® UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE — 07/02/12

Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel schedules final meeting

The Social Security Administration has announced that its committee to revise the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel, will hold a teleconference on July 5, 2012, from approximately 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EDT). The meeting is open to the public. The call-in number is (877) 852-6575. Because the SSA has not extended the panel’s charter beyond its expiration on July 6, this will be the panel’s final meeting. According to a message from the panel’s chair, Mary Barros-Bailey, Ph.D., “the Social Security Administration (SSA) decided that because of fiscal issues associated with the current Federal financial crisis, they would not extend the OIDAP charter . . . .”

The panel provides independent advice and recommendations to the SSA regarding the creation of an occupational information system for use in its disability programs and for its adjudicative needs.

The tentative agenda for this final meeting includes: individual and organizational public comment, panel discussion and deliberation, and an administrative business meeting. The full agenda will be available on the Internet at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oidap/meeting_information.htm one week prior to the meeting.

Arising out of the panel’s recent June 4, 2012, teleconference meeting, is Recommendation #9, for which the panel is requesting public comment. To be considered, comments must be submitted to one of the addresses listed in the notice by June 29, 2012. The recommendation advises the SSA to continue bringing transparency to the process of developing occupational information that will affect decision-making in the disability programs. Specifically, the panel advises that the agency should:

1. publicize reports from leadership of the Office of Vocational Resources Development (OVRD) on the project’s activities, including continued updates regarding the progress with this initiative and strategic goals on agency websites and in public forum webinars and informational sessions, advertised in the Federal Register and agency sources;

2. announce all future strategic research and development plans, as well as findings from the project development and data collection efforts, to researchers for peer review;

3. continue to promote a venue for public comment and a repository for such comment; and

4. engage and involve stakeholders and the scientific community in the review of research and development activities, as well as issues related to the analysis, usability, and integration of occupational data into the disability adjudication process.

The panel also expressed the need to develop a vocational database that is scientifically based, as well as developed by a trained staff using psychometrically sound scales and a carefully designed sampling strategy that represents all jobs in the national economy. It also urged that gathered data be scientifically tested and periodically updated. The panel noted that:

Failure to fully ensure the scientific veracity of the occupational taxonomy, data collection instrument, sampling strategy, and sources of data or data collection methods, will make SSA vulnerable to legitimate litigation.

The full text of the SSA's notice of the upcoming meeting was published in the June 20, 2012, issue of the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 37089).