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QUESTION: How is a "job" selected to be included in a survey?
ERI Economic Research Institute, an independent affiliate of Abbott, Langer Association Surveys, provides the methodology for "job" selection in ALAS survey reports. ERI has adopted the DOT’s definition of an “occupation,” used for almost 70 years by professionals, courts and experts. ERI has also added a selection/use threshold based on the generally accepted “norms” of US Administrative Law (ALJ) courts. “Job” equals “occupation.” When ERI talks of a specific job with an incumbent, it may use the term “position.”
This differs from O*NET’s “occupational groups” which are job groups, often called “job families” (eDOT also defines “occupational groups” with its first 3 digits of eDOT’s 9 digit code). O*NET states it has “800 occupations” (it misuses the term). The DOL/OES/BLS surveys combine data (roll up O*NET stragglers) into 742 OES/SOC job families. The US Census continues this roll-up into 471 Census Occupations (while adding an occupation, “Logisticians”).
ERI’s Assessor Series and PAQ’s Occupational Assessor (eDOT) report on ~2,500 to ~10,000 specific occupations respectively (varying each Quarter by additions of new jobs and compressions of waning jobs). Each must have:
| • | A unique, non-industry specific job title. |
| • | A unique “Primary Duty” requiring an identifiable skill, if existent. |
| • | Two to three unique additional task statements (with related skills, abilities and/or knowledge required) |
| • | An ERI eSemantic low score of job match relevancy as compared to other specific eDOT occupations. |
| • | An occupation must exist in counts exceeding 2,500 incumbents in the national economy for use in the Assessor Series. |
| • | A job must be estimated to exist in 250 or more instances in the national economy to be included in eDOT (explaining why eDOT has more jobs than the combined Assessor Series’ occupations and matching generally acknowledged, but unwritten, US Social Security Administration ALJ national guidelines). The estimation of a job’s existence is based on data collected by: |
ERI’s Job Availability Survey
Jobs are known to exist if:
| • | They are reported in published salary surveys with listed survey participant names and incumbent counts. |
| • | Their job titles and/or specific descriptions are found on disability claim forms (California). |
| • | They have been collected by ERI’s eSpideri’s datamining of specific job postings (SalariesReview’s Find Jobs) and are complete, specific and matched to a bona fide employing entity (matched to ERI’s Potential Employer list); vague, general descriptions from “Company Unknown” are not analyzed. |
| • | PAQ field job analyst input, including cybernetic use of eDOT, report the existence of these occupations and their work measures and duties as found in an on-site job analysis. |
Additional evidence of a job’s existence is noted, but not determined by, the following:
| • | Users of SalaryExpert’s salary calculator, with almost ½ million searches each month. This is the second most popular of the free data sites (and reports conservative Government job family salary data). |
| • | Requests for “new titles” whenever the eDOT PC program is first used (in a “submit process”) and requests by ERI and PAQ subscribers. |
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Abbott, Langer Association Surveys FAQ#7