Why Semi-Skilled and Unskilled Jobs Matter for SSDI and SSI

If you've applied for disability benefits and the Social Security Administration (SSA) agrees you can't do your past work, the agency will look at the skill levels of your past jobs to assess whether there are other similarly skilled jobs that you are able to do, despite your physical or mental limitations.

Many times disability applicants think their past jobs are unskilled and that they have no job skills. Then they're surprised to be denied disability benefits because Social Security categorized their past jobs as semi-skilled, which led Social Security to say that they have job skills they can transfer to a new job. For instance, shipping and receiving clerks might think they're doing unskilled work because the job mainly involves loading and unloading boxes, but Social Security considers an S&R clerk to be a semi-skilled job. So the agency could find that someone who had worked as a shipping and receiving clerk has clerical job skills that could be used at another type of job.

Social Security won't look at every single job you've ever had to see if you've done any skilled or semi-skilled work in the past. Instead, the SSA will only look at jobs you've held over the past five years. Also, the agency will only use jobs that you held for at least 30 days. Moreover, for work that requires more than a month's training (most semi-skilled and skilled jobs), the SSA won't consider a job you didn't do long enough to learn how to do it, even if you held the job for more than 30 days.

Why the Skill Level of Your Past Work Matters

Skill levels come into play both when Social Security looks at whether there are other jobs you can learn to do and when Social Security assesses whether you fall into any of its "grid rules."

If you're a skilled worker, Social Security assumes you can do many types of jobs, so it can be harder to be found disabled. But if your past work is unskilled, Social Security will only find you capable of doing other unskilled jobs, many of which require a lot of standing or heavy lifting.

The grid rules are a set of charts arranged by your "residual functional capacity" (RFC). Social Security uses the grid rules to decide whether older people are disabled, based on their RFC, education, and job skills.

If you have "transferable skills"—knowledge you learned at one job that you could use at another job—you can't qualify for disability using the grid rules. (Social Security Ruling SSR 82-41.) For further explanation of how the grid rules use skill levels, see Nolo's article on the disability grid rules.

How Do You Know If Your Past Work Was Skilled or Unskilled?

The best way to see how Social Security will classify your job is to search the Dictionary of Occupational Titles for the occupation that best matches your job (both in terms of title and duties). You need to look at the SVP (specific vocational preparation) number that the Department of Labor assigned to the job: SVPs of 1 and 2 mean the job is unskilled, SVPs of 3 and 4 mean the job is semi-skilled, and SVPs of 5 and above mean the job is considered skilled.

Some types of jobs straddle two categories. For instance, the job of cashier can fall into either the unskilled category or the semi-skilled category. The DOT classifies grocery checkers as semi-skilled workers and puts other types of cashiers, such as parking lot, dining room, self-service gasoline, and change-booth cashiers, into the semi-skilled category.

Social Security's Skill Levels

Social Security will categorize your past jobs into skilled work, semi-skilled work, and unskilled work. (20 C.F.R. 404.1568 and 20 C.F.R. 416.968.) It relies on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to classify jobs into these categories. Let's look at what each category of work entails and some examples of which skill level some common jobs fall into.

We'll also briefly discuss how Social Security uses these skill levels in its disability determination process, but to learn more, read how a lack of job skills can rule out your ability to switch to other work.

What's Unskilled Work?

Unskilled work involves simple tasks and doesn't usually require one to exercise judgment. It typically requires only a month or less to learn. Many, but not all, unskilled jobs require physical strength or coordination.

Here are some examples of unskilled jobs:

• parking lot attendant
• cleaner or janitor
• fast food worker
• line operator
• messenger
• sewing machine operator (semi-automatic)
• construction laborer
• information desk clerk, and
• vegetable harvester/picker (and some other types of farm workers).

If you have a history of only unskilled work, Social Security can't say there are semi-skilled or skilled jobs you can do. You can do only unskilled work, and only if your limitations allow it.

Also, unskilled jobs don't produce transferable skills, so if your only jobs have been unskilled and you are 50 years or older, you have a good chance of fitting into a grid rule that says you're disabled. (On the other hand, if you have transferable job skills and you can do at least sit-down work, you won't be found disabled under the grid rules.)

What's Semi-Skilled Work?

Semi-skilled work requires paying attention to detail or protecting against risks, but it doesn't include complex job duties. Semi-skilled work doesn't require you to have advanced training or education. It typically takes between three and six months to fully learn a semi-skilled job.

Some semi-skilled jobs require monitoring, quality checking, or doing repetitive tasks. Here are some examples of semi-skilled jobs:

• retail salesperson
• security guard
• telephone solicitor
• waiter/waitress
• bartender
• flight attendant
• taxi driver
• laundry operator
• nurse's assistant
• furniture mover
• file clerk, and
• fisherman.

If your past work history includes any semi-skilled work, Social Security may say there are other semi-skilled jobs (or unskilled jobs) you can do, if your limitations allow it. It's less likely that you'll fit into a disabled grid rule, because Social Security is more likely to find you have some transferable job skills.

What's Skilled Work?

Skilled work requires workers to use their judgment to make decisions and may require workers to measure, calculate, read, or estimate. Skilled work often has specific qualifications such as educational degrees or professional training and usually requires intellectual reasoning and problem-solving skills. It typically takes six months to a year or more to learn a skilled job.

Here are some examples of skilled jobs:

• secretary or administrative assistant
• sales representative
• customer service representative
• tailor
• nurse
• office clerk
• teacher or teacher's aide
• fast food cook
• travel agent, and
• mortgage processor.

It's difficult for a disability applicant with a history of skilled work to be found disabled—unless the applicant can't do even sedentary work—because there are many different types of skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled sedentary jobs that a person with skills may be able to do. And it's much less likely for a skilled worker to fit into a grid rule, because someone with transferable job skills won't be found disabled under the grid rules.

Disability Denials Based on Mistaken Job Skills

Sometimes Social Security mistakenly thinks a disability applicant's past job included job skills when it actually didn't. This usually happens because the agency has gotten the details of the applicant's job wrong. The agency will assume you did a job as it is generally performed by others holding the same job. If you did the job differently, you may not have gained the job skills Social Security thinks you did. Or, you might have used a job title that doesn't accurately describe the job you were doing, according to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

To learn more, see our articles on when Social Security makes mistakes about your job history.

Getting Help With the Determination Process

It can be difficult to figure out how the skill level of your past work may affect your chances of getting disability. And it can be even harder to do anything about it, such as making sure the SSA understands your employment experience accurately. You might want to consider hiring an experienced disability attorney to help with this aspect of your application. Your lawyer will be able to tell you whether your past work might get in the way of a disability approval—and what to do about it—and whether any grid rules might apply to you.