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OCR for page 31
~ Use of the
- J Dictionary of
Occupational Titles
by the
U.S. Employment Service
Chapters 3 and 4 describe the uses of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
Chapter 3 summarizes the uses of the DOT within the U.S. Employment
Service (ES); chapter 4 presents a summary of the uses of the DOT outside
the Employment Service. This chapter is intended to provide the general
reader with some information about the primary uses made of the DOT by
the Employment Service. Detailed descriptions of Employment Service use
of the DOT have already been collected and are reported elsewhere. ~
The major use of the DOT within the Employment Service is as a
placement tool in local Employment Service offices for the matching of
workers and jobs. It is also used in a variety of counseling and guidance
activities. Secondary users of the DOT include the Division of Testing and
the Division of Labor Certification, which are the two other subdivisions
(in addition to the Division of Occupational Analysis) of the Office of
Technical Support in the U.S. Employment Service. Each of these users of
the Dictionary of Occupational Titles is described in turn. Thoughout the
chapter, reference is made to data gathered from site visits to local
lithe Employment Service has conducted several surveys of its use of the third edition DOT: in
1967-1968 the Wisconsin occupational analysis field center conducted a four-question, open-
ended survey; a second survey was made in 1973 in nine state ES agencies by the occupational
analysis field centers; in 1972 the California occupational analysis field center also conducted
a study of DOT use in local ES offices.
31
OCR for page 32
32
WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
Employment Service offices as well as to the committee's surveys of DOT
purchasers and state-level DOT users. Given the nature of the samples, the
ES stab responding to the surveys cannot be regarded as representative of
all ES employees.2 Still, the responses to these surveys provide supplemen-
tary information about Employment Service use of the DOT.
USE OF THE DOT IN PLACEMENT AND COUNSELING
A SOURCE OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION
Employment Service placement interviewers and counselors need
definitions of those occupations for which employers need workers as well
as of those occupations in which workers have previously been employed.
It was this need that led to the production of the first edition DOT in 1939.
To understand the current need for the DOT by the Employment
Service, committee members and staff observed the operations of local
Employment Service offices in various parts of the country and discussed
the use of the DOT with experienced interviewers and counselors. Because
we did not visit a large number of offices and because the offices we did
visit were not specifically selected for their representative character, the
descriptions provided do not necessarily represent all, or even the average,
Employment Service office. The committee was also briefed at its first
meeting by senior officials of the national office of the U.S. Employment
Service on the use of the DOT and benefited from published Employment
Service documents. Many of the ES staff with whom we spoke suggested
that there was an enduring need for a comprehensive set of definitions for
the occupational titles that are commonly used to describe jobs in the U.S.
economy.
Our observation of local ES offices indicated that even highly experi-
enced Employment Service interviewers may encounter unfamiliar occupa-
tional titles. For example, in one local office, committee staff observed a
counselor, whose experience was mainly in hotel service occupations,
interview an applicant who had recently emigrated from the Soviet Union.
The applicant spoke fluent English but did not fully understand the
2 The DOT purchaser and the state-level surveys carried out by the committee staff were
intended to solicit responses from users of the DOT outside the Employment Service (see
chapter 4 for details on the sampling design for these surveys). However, because of the lack
of specificity in the list of purchasers used as the sampling base, and because of the way the
state-level users were chosen, 76 Employment Service employees were inadvertently included
as respondents to the survey of external users. These responses were deleted from the analysis
of external use of the DOT and used as supplementary information for this chapter (see also
footnotes 2 and 5 of chapter 4).
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
33
nuances of American occupational titles. After reviewing his application
the counselor established that the applicant had been employed in the
Soviet telephone system. The interviewer then worked his way through a
variety of technical occupations in the telephone industry involving duties
similar to those described by the applicant. The counselor began with the
occupation Telephone Installer and then proceeded from Telephone
Repairer to Electronics Technician. He and the applicant finally settled on
the title Electronics Technician as the best description of the job tasks that
the worker had performed for the Soviet telephone system. The interview
was largely conducted by having the applicant respond to the definitions of
various occupational titles in the telephone industry. In this case the
availability of a comprehensive set of definitions for the occupational titles
used in the U.S. telephone industry was an essential part of assisting the
job applicant; the availability of a dictionary of occupational titles enabled
an interviewer whose experience was largely confined to hotel service jobs
to assist the applicant in finding a suitable job in another industry.
While the foregoing example may be unusual, it does parallel a number
of other cases that are more common. Situations may arise in which
workers are employed in relatively rare occupations or the occupational
titles used in one area of the country are not the same as those used in
another area. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles is also used to facilitate
the training of ES personnel in occupational areas in which they have no
direct experience.
PLACEMENT
In addition to the use of its definitions and titles to inform interviewers,
counselors, and applicants about the nature of jobs, the DOT classification
structure provides a mechanism for job-worker matching. Each worker
applying for a job and each job opening placed with the Employment
Service is assigned a DOT code number designating the relevant occupa-
tion. These codes are used to match job openings in a particular
occupation with workers seeking employment in that occupation as well as
to report aggregate operating statistics on the types of workers served and
the types of job vacancies existing in various local labor markets.
The committee staff visited a number of Employment Service offices,
both automated and nonautomated. A composite picture of the typical job
search procedure is presented below, drawn from local office visits and
Employment Service documents. For the job-seeking client entering the
employment office, there are three basic methods of job search or referral
once the initial reception and application work is completed. Most of the
applicants (75 percent in one center visited) are sent directly to microfiche
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34
WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
viewers through which they can review existing job openings, sorted by
DOT code. If they find jobs that are of interest, they then meet with a
placement interviewer. Certain clients are referred immediately to place-
ment interviewers, because either their skills are in great demand or they
require special help in completing their application (e.g., they cannot read
or lack sufficient proficiency in English). Other clients usually the very
young, very old, disabled, or non-English-speaking- are usually routed
directly to guidance counselors. The first two of these methods of job
search are described in this section; the counseling process is described in
the subsequent section.
Self-Referral
Most local Employment Service offices have set aside a portion of the office
as a job information service, which provides job search information. The
existence of a job information service system rests on the premise that
many job seekers can secure employment with minimal assistance from
interviewers. The Employment Service has set up a self-help unit to which
job applicants can go to review existing job openings. In addition to job
search information (e.g., pamphlets and career brochures) this unit
contains microfiche viewers listing job openings by DOT code. Clients are
directed to appropriate viewers on the basis of their past employment
experience, as indexed by the nine-digit DOT code. The job bank microfiche
contains all the job orders submitted through the previous day; in
automated centers it contains keywords (discussed in Appendix G) as well
as the DOT code. When a job seeker has found one or more jobs of interest,
he or she meets with a placement interviewer who consults the microfiche
as well as the application form to determine whether the client meets the
employer's specifications. The interviewer then checks to be sure that the
employer is still accepting referrals and if so sets up an interview.
Interviewer Referral
Some of the clients using the job information service may also be directed
to placement interviewers who help them search for jobs. Other applicants
are referred directly to interviewers upon entry to the employment office,
either because their skills are in great demand or because they encounter
problems in filling out the application forms or using the microfiche
viewers.
The method of job search employed by the placement interviewers
depends on whether the employment office is automated. In a nonautomat-
ed once each interviewer generally specializes in a certain group of jobs
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
35
(i.e., a particular range of DOT codes). Duplicate copies of a client's
application must therefore be placed in separate files, one for each DOT
code assigned to the client. In assisting a client in finding employment the
interviewer manually searches through job orders and through the job
information service microfiche in order to find a suitable job-worker
match. Finding such a match, the interviewer sets up an interview for the
applicant. The client's file is kept for 60 days, during which time the
interviewer attempts to fill new job orders with past applications.
Although many placements are found this way (in one center this type of
placement was 3 times as likely as same-day placements), the interviewers
complained that it is hard to find time for such searches when long lines of
applicants await service.
In automated offices the interviewer-assisted job search is conducted in a
different way. Two types of computer-assisted matching techniques are
employed: an applicant-oriented procedure and an employer-oriented
procedure. The former procedure typically makes an immediate referral,
while the latter is done in an "overnight batch match." In the applicant-
oriented search, the interviewer searches the job bank via computer to find
jobs matching the client's skills and requirements for time, pay, and
location. The matching jobs are usually printed out with an estimate of the
degree to which the match satisfies the employer's requirements. The
interviewer assists in choosing among the matching jobs and makes a
referral. If no referral is made via the applicant-oriented search procedure,
the client may still receive a job referral from the employer-oriented
matching procedure. In this method of job-worker matching, a computer
is used to find the best-fitting applicants for each job in the job bank; for
each job, applicants are ranked by fit to the job.
Before moving on to a description of counseling, mention should be
made of how job orders from employers are handled in Employment
Service offices. Special interviewers, not involved in placement, accept job
orders by phone, recording in a standardized way information on place,
limitations on the number of referrals, salary, benefits, and job require-
ments. In automated centers this information is coded directly into the
computer via a keyword language so that the jobs are available for
immediate referral. In both types of centers a DOT code is assigned to each
job order by the order taker.
COUNSELING
Certain Employment Service clients including veterans and disabled,
illiterate, very young, very old, or non-English-speaking people-are
usually routed directly to vocational guidance counselors rather than to
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36
WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
the job information service unit or a placement interviewer. Employment
Service counselors assist job seekers with problems related to vocational
choice, occupational change, and job adjustment. Since the counseling
program is ultimately designed to result in occupational placement,
Employment Service counselors may serve the dual role of placement
interviewer/counselor.
The counselor, when interviewing individual clients, attempts to assist
the job seeker in developing an occupational plan, identifying both short-
range and long-range vocational goals. In developing such a plan, the
counselor collects relevant identifying information, a summary of the
applicant's vocational situation, and additional facts that may be relevant
(e.g., vocational likes and dislikes, work experience, educational back-
ground). As part of the counseling process the counselor may use ES-
approved tests, such as interest inventories, interest checklists, and
aptitude tests, to assess the individual's skill level, aptitudes, or interests.
With this information the counselor can then work with the job seeker in
developing an occupational plan to be followed. The overall purpose of the
counseling program is to evaluate, with the applicant, his or her current
qualifications and potential occupational aptitudes and to compare them
with job requirements and opportunities as indexed by the DOT code and
other worker trait data. A new automated system has been designed to
assist in the counseling/placement function: the systems exploration and
research for career help (SEARCH) is a computer-assisted system that
compares the interests, aptitudes, and abilities of a client with those
required by the jobs in which he or she has expressed an interest.
The national office and the state occupational analysis field centers of
the U.S. Employment Service have also engaged in a variety of counseling
and guidance support activities. A recent major effort was the publication
of the Guide for Occupational Exploration (U.S. Department of Labor,
1979a).3 This guide, written in simple language, groups together occupa-
tions that are "homogeneous in terms of worker characteristics." The
worker characteristics that define these worker trait groups derive from job
analysis schedules completed for the DOT and include general educational
development (GED); specific vocational preparation (svP); the DATA,
PEOPLE, and THINGS ratings; aptitudes, interests, temperaments, physical
demands, and working conditions. This information is reformatted to
facilitate counseling. The Guide for Occupational Exploration, which stems
from an ES tradition of publishing career guidance material based on the
DOT, illustrates a major and continuing use of DOT material. The
3An adaptation of this work was published commercially (Appalachian Educational
Laboratory, 1978).
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
37
Employment Service has also published a number of books and pamphlets
describing occupations and employment possibilities in various industries,
such as Occupations in Library Science, Career Opportunities in the
Trucking Industry, Health Careers Guidebook (see Appendix D for a
listing of occupational analysis publications). In general, these publications
reformat information from the DOT with basic information about an
industry, its organization, and its hiring practices.
EVALUATION OF DOT USE
Several assessments of local office use of the Dictionary of Occupational
Titles in placement and counseling have been conducted by the Employ-
ment Service. This section provides a summary of these evaluations as well
as supplemental information provided by the committee-sponsored surveys
of DOT purchasers and state-level DOT users. The Employment-Service-
sponsored surveys of DOT use were carried out before 1974 and describe
the use of editions prior to the fourth edition, whereas the committee-
sponsored surveys cover both the third and the fourth editions.
The ES studies include (1) a survey conducted by the Wisconsin
occupational analysis field center in 1967-1968, (2) a small survey
conducted in 1972 by the Los Angeles occupational analysis field center,
and (3) a 1973 survey of DOT use in nine state Employment Service offices,
conducted by the occupational analysis field centers. The 1973 study, more
comprehensive in scope than the previous surveys, surveyed 569 employ-
ment personnel in more than 220 local offices in New York, North
Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, Missouri, Arizona, and
Washington. Those surveyed included placement interviewers, counselors,
job development and training specialists, unemployment personnel, and
technical, support, and management staff. While some of the information
gathered by this survey is limited because the referent is the third edition
DOT, many of the essential features of the DOT and its use by the
Employment Service have not changed.
All three Employment Service surveys suggest that the DOT job titles
and definitions are the most frequently used DOT components. Of the 1973
respondents, 97 percent reported using the titles and definitions at least
occasionally. Respondents reported less frequent use of the occupational
group arrangement, the industry designation, worker functions, and
worker trait information.
In the 1973 survey, approximately 60 percent of the placement
interviewers reported that they never used the worker trait information,
and another 37 percent reported that they used it only occasionally.
Employment Service counselors are more likely to find the worker trait
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38
WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
information useful: 12 percent of the counselors reported frequent use, and
another 68 percent reported occasional use of the worker trait information.
Three quarters of the counselors found the worker trait information useful
in helping clients explore vocational and occupational options.
Two thirds of the counselors and 82 percent of the interviewers reported
that they used the occupational group arrangement (the DOT classification
structure) at least occasionally. Those who used the occupational group
arrangement reported that they did so for order taking, to classify
occupations and applicants, to find appropriate occupational titles, to
assign codes to entry-level workers, or to relate occupations to the aptitude
and the general aptitude test battery (GATB) scores of applicants.
Seventy percent of the counselors and sixty-two percent of the
interviewers found the industry designations useful for their work. The
counselors used the industry designation for differentiating among similar
titles and identifying related occupations for counseling and job develop-
ment, while interviewers employed it for finding similar jobs in related
fields, coding jobs and applicants, defining industries and defining jobs
within them for job development, and as help in identifying applicant
skills.
The majority of counselors and interviewers also found the worker
function information (the fourth, fifth, and sixth digits of the DOT code)
helpful in their work. Two thirds of the counselors reported that the
worker function data were of significant value in their work; 60 percent of
the interviewers expressed similar sentiments.
These survey data are in general agreement with the observations made
during committee-sponsored site visits to local Employment Service
offices. In particular, it was observed that order takers, interviewers, and
unemployment insurance personnel usually consult the dictionary to
locate an occupational title and DOT code; they less frequently use it for
other purposes. In visits to offices made while the third edition DOT was
still being used, we observed that typically, Volume 1 was consulted; that
volume contains occupational titles arranged in alphabetical order, with a
definition and a DOT code number for each title. The DOT supplement
containing three-digit suffix codes was also usually consulted to provide a
unique nine-digit code. Ordinarily, placement staff did not consult the
worker trait and occupational group information published in the second
volume. This volume appears to be used in unusual cases (e.g., involving
applicants with special counseling needs or for job development or testing
work).
In many offices it is impossible for an interviewer to serve a new
applicant or employer without using the title and definition sections of the
DOT. Some offices have an explicit policy that requires the consultation of
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
39
the DOT to verify all occupational titles and codes. In other offices there is
no explicit rule, and, occasionally, one observes interviewers using
personal lists of DOT codes for common occupational titles, a practice that
is more common in nonautomated offices in which ES personnel specialize
in a particular industry or a range of occupations.
In the 1973 survey, respondents were also asked to assess the usefulness
of the various components of the DOT. Many respondents drew attention
to the need for cross-references between similar occupations in the DOT as
well as to the DOT'S inconsistency in the detail of its occupational
definitions; 63 percent of the ES counseling personnel believed that related
DOT definitions should be cross-referenced to facilitate career exploration.
In addition, complaints were voiced about the placement of dissimilar jobs
in the same group in the DOT'S occupational group arrangement, which
meant that the grouping arrangement could not be relied on to locate
occupations with related skills.
The Employment Service respondents to the committee-sponsored
survey of DOT users (see note 2) provide interesting supplementary and
corroborating information to the evaluation of use described above. Of the
76 respondents, 28 are placement personnel; another 28 are involved in the
development of labor force projections and occupational information
dissemination; 8 are in counseling work; the remainder conduct research
or are located in vocational education or managerial positions. Of these
respondents, 92 percent reported that they had used the fourth edition
DOT in the past year; 67 percent were also still using one of the two
primary third edition volumes (i.e., Definitions of Titles (U.S. Department
of Labor, 1965a) and Occupational Classification and Industry Index (0J.S.
Department of Labor, 1965b)~. As suggested by the Es-sponsored surveys,
Employment Service staff find the titles and definitions as well as the DOT
codes themselves particularly useful; 91 percent of the ES respondents
reported that they use the titles and definitions and 87 percent use the
codes. About half the respondents report using the industry designations
(placement personnel more often than counselors) and the worker trait
information (counselors more often than placement interviewers).
Although the DOT appears to be quite important to local ES employees
(at least specific component parts of the DOT), the career-related brochures
sponsored by the Division of Occupational Analysis are apparently not so
important. The occupational analysis career guides and brochures are
generally used by fewer than a third of the Employment Service
respondents. This finding is surprising, given that the local ES offices are
the primary distribution point for these publications. By contrast, the job
search monthlies published by the Job Search Branch of the Division of
Occupational Analysis (e.g., Job Bank Openings Summary, Frequently
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WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
Listed Openings, and Occupations in Demand are widely used. Nearly two
thirds of the ES respondents (primarily employment placement personnel
and those involved in labor force projections and the dissemination of
occupational information) reported regular or occasional use of these
products in the past year.
Although the casual nature of our sample of ES personnel precludes
strong inferences from their responses, the lack of use of career products
within local ES offices is consistent with the observations of the committee
and staff made in the course of visits to ES offices and is corroborated by
the findings of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. (1979:IV-17~. Booz, Allen &
Hamilton asked ES employees about career publications of the Occupation-
al Analysis Branch but not about the products of the Job Search Branch.
They concluded that the production of career brochures by the national
office was poorly directed and not cost effective. In interviews with local
Employment Service staff, including job information service unit supervi-
sors, career counselors, and office managers, the Booz, Allen & Hamilton
stab did not find anyone familiar with the national career publications.
The state-produced brochures, in contrast, were considered valuable and
were in heavy demand at the local offices visited.
Although not a publication of the Employment Service, the Occupation-
al Outlook Handbook (U.S. Department of Labor, 1978a), published every
2 years by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, exemplifies one other major use
of the DOT within the Department of Labor. This large document is a
major source of vocational guidance used by school and career counselors.
For each DOT occupation the Handbook collects and reformats DOT and
other information describing what workers do in that occupation, the
training and education required, and projections of the likely availability of
jobs in the future. This publication is evidently used often by local ES office
employees; 90 percent of the Employment Service respondents to our
survey of DOT users reported regular or occasional use in the past year.
OTHER USES OF THE DOT
TESTING
As mentioned earlier, Employment Service counselors and interviewers
may recommend that their clients take one or more tests designed to assist
both job seekers and employers in maximizing job-worker placement.
These tests, designed by research psychologists in the Division of Testing
of the Employment Service, assess applicant aptitudes and interests with
respect to a variety of occupational options; they are intended to measure
basic achievement levels, interests, proficiencies, and potential. Counselors
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
41
can use this information in exploring career opportunities and options with
ES clients. The testing program is also seen as benefiting prospective
employers by permitting the referral of applicants who have demonstrated
potential or interest in a particular occupation.
A variety of tests, developed by the Division of Testing, are currently
being employed in local ES offices.
General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). The GATB, published in 1947
after extensive occupational validation and factor analysis studies, mea-
sures the vocational aptitudes of individuals who possess basic literacy
skills but who have requested help from ES counselors in selecting an
occupation. The test battery contains 12 tests measuring 9 vocational
aptitudes, including general learning ability; verbal, numerical, and spatial
aptitudes; form perception; clerical perception; motor coordination; finger
dexterity; and manual dexterity. The test is intended to measure an
individual's vocational aptitudes, and scores are interpreted as indicating
qualifications for a wide range of occupations.
Non-Reading Aptitude Test Battery (NATB). The NATB iS an analogue of
the GATB for individuals with insufficient reading skills to take the GATB.
In this test battery, 14 tests measure the same 9 aptitudes measured by the
GATB.
Specific Aptitude Test Batteries (SATB). The SATB are subsets of the
GATB, with associated cutoff scores, used to measure an applicant's
potential to acquire skills relevant to specific categories of occupations.
Clerical Skills Test. The clerical test is designed to measure proficiency
in typing, dictation, and spelling for clerical occupations.
Basic Occupational Literacy Test (BOLT). The BOLT iS a measure of the
literacy skills of educationally deficient applicants that can be related to
the literacy requirements of specific occupations.
Interest Check List. The Interest Check List was developed by the
Division of Testing for use during the counseling process in order to obtain
information on the occupational interests of the job seeker. The checklist
contains 173 sample tasks that represent a wide range of occupational
activities.
In addition to these counseling aids, the Division of Testing has also
been partly responsible for the development of a new occupational interest
inventory that was recently published in the Guide for Occupational
Exploration, a supplement designed to be used with the fourth edition
DOT. The purpose of the research was to make available to counselors an
interest inventory that directly relates the job seeker's capabilities,
occupational interests, and adaptabilities to the requirements of occupa-
tions.
The Division of Testing relies on the DOT for information on
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42
WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
occupations and occupational requirements both in producing their tests
and, as described above, in applying the tests in counseling and placement
uses in local ES offices. According to the Division of Testing their
development and research program is guided by several concepts (U.S.
Department of Labor, 1977g:1-2~:
The tests developed must be occupationally oriented if they are to be useful in
vocational counseling and selection in the Employment Service.
To the extent possible, the tests developed should be oriented to the U.S.
Employment Service's Dictionary of Occupational Titles used by placement
interviewers and counselors in the Employment Service.
Specifically, these Es-produced tests are related to the DOT coding
structure, in which occupations are identified by DOT codes. The reliance
of the testing program on the DOT iS seen most strongly, however, in the
use of the DOT to define the occupations for which test norms are
produced. For example, the basic literacy test (BOLT) establishes literacy
standards for DOT occupational groups by reference to the general
educational development (GED) levels defined in the DOT.
LABOR CERTIFICATION
One other use of the DOT in the Employment Service is in the job
placement of alien workers. As amended in 1965, the Immigration and
Nationality Act allowed foreign workers to enter the United States if they
offered a skill that U.S. workers could not provide. This provision ensured
that foreign workers would not be competing with U.S. citizens for jobs.
The Division of Labor Certification is the office within the Department of
Labor charged with making such determinations, and the DOT iS the
primary source document used in the certification process. The division
does not generally make any statements regarding surplus or shortage job
areas; all work to be certified concerns a specific job opportunity, as
indexed by a nine-digit DOT code. The foreign worker must be sponsored
by an employer, who contacts the division for certification once the
employer has attempted to fill the job through normal Employment
Service procedures. If the job, indexed by the nine-digit DOT code, is
certified, the Immigration and Naturalization Service gives the worker a
temporary visa. The division also maintains a list of occupations that are
found to be in short supply nationally.
In addition to the work of the Division of Labor Certification the field
centers of the Division of Occupational Analysis have also been involved
in labor certification work. The New York field center was called on to
determine whether French Canadian workers in Maine were performing
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Use of the DOT by the U.S. Employment Service
43
logging operations not done by American workers. If an occupation not
performed by American workers was found to exist, this fact could be used
as justification for allowing the Canadian workers to remain in the
country. The foreign workers evidently performed all three of the
operations normally involved in logging work, while American workers
traditionally specialized in only one of the three. The contribution of the
occupational analysts to this project was to provide documentation
justifying the creation of a new, more general occupation to be included in
the DOT, thus providing the alien loggers the certification they needed to
remain in the country.
The Arizona field center is currently (at the time of writing) involved in
a similar labor certification case. The state's citrus growers want to import
Mexican pickers, since they claim that U.S. workers with the 1-2 years of
experience necessary to do the work are not available. On the basis of the
existing svP score for citrus workers (svP = 1, short demonstration only)
the state Employment Service has denied the growers' request for labor
certification of alien workers. To resolve the controversy, the Arizona field
center has been asked to ascertain whether the svP rating is appropriate.
SUMMARY
This chapter briefly summarizes the primary uses of the Dictionary of
Occupational Titles within the U.S. Employment Service. The major use of
the DOT iS as a placement and counseling tool for matching workers and
jobs in Employment Service offices. Information from a variety of sources
suggests that the major use of the DOT for placement purposes involves its
dictionary capacity: the great majority of ES employees indicate that they
make primary use of the job titles and definitions. Another substantial
percentage indicate heavy use of the DOT coding structure. Less use is
generally made of the other components of the DOT, including the industry
designation, the worker function scales, and the worker trait information.
Counselors were more likely than placement interviewers to find the
worker trait information useful; 75 percent reported using this information
in helping clients to explore vocational and occupational options.
In addition to its use as a placement and counseling tool the DOT also
provides the factual base for a series of career brochures and monthly
labor force information publications prepared for use by counseling and
guidance personnel in local ES offices. With the exception of the job search
monthlies (`Job Bank Openings Summary, Frequently Listed Openings, and
Occupations in Demand) the career guides and other occupational
information produced by the Division of Occupational Analysis are
apparently almost never used by ES personnel.
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WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS
The DOT iS also used by the Division of Testing and the Division of
Labor Certification, two subunits of the Employment Service. The testing
program uses the DOT in the development of tests for the ES counseling
process. The tests are designed to measure occupational aptitudes, clerical
skills, and literacy. The use in labor certification is for indexing
occupational opportunities for which the demand for workers exceeds the
supply of eligible U.S. workers, thus permitting the certification of foreign
workers.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
occupational titles
