20 C.F.R. § 404.1568

Skill requirements

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In order to evaluate your skills and to help determine the existence in the national economy of work you are able to do, occupations are classified as unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled. In classifying these occupations, we use materials published by the Department of Labor. When we make disability determinations under this subpart, we use the following definitions:

(a) Unskilled work. Unskilled work is work which needs little or no judgment to do simple duties that can be learned on the job in a short period of time. The job may or may not require considerable strength. For example, we consider jobs unskilled if the primary work duties are handling, feeding and offbearing (that is, placing or removing materials from machines which are automatic or operated by others), or machine tending, and a person can usually learn to do the job in 30 days, and little specific vocational preparation and judgment are needed. A person does not gain work skills by doing unskilled jobs.

(b) Semi-skilled work. Semi-skilled work is work which needs some skills but does not require doing the more complex work duties. Semi-skilled jobs may require alertness and close attention to watching machine processes; or inspecting, testing or otherwise looking for irregularities; or tending or guarding equipment, property, materials, or persons against loss, damage or injury; or other types of activities which are similarly less complex than skilled work, but more complex than unskilled work. A job may be classified as semi-skilled where coordination and dexterity are necessary, as when hands or feet must be moved quickly to do repetitive tasks.

(c) Skilled work. Skilled work requires qualifications in which a person uses judgment to determine the machine and manual operations to be performed in order to obtain the proper form, quality, or quantity of material to be produced. Skilled work may require laying out work, estimating quality, determining the suitability and needed quantities of materials, making precise measurements, reading blueprints or other specifications, or making necessary computations or mechanical adjustments to control or regulate the work. Other skilled jobs may require dealing with people, facts, or figures or abstract ideas at a high level of complexity.

(d) Skills that can be used in other work (transferability)—(1) What we mean by transferable skills. We consider you to have skills that can be used in other jobs, when the skilled or semi-skilled work activities you did in past work can be used to meet the requirements of skilled or semi-skilled work activities of other jobs or kinds of work. This depends largely on the similarity of occupationally significant work activities among different jobs.

(2) How we determine skills that can be transferred to other jobs. Transferability is most probable and meaningful among jobs in which—

(i) The same or a lesser degree of skill is required;

(ii) The same or similar tools and machines are used; and

(iii) The same or similar raw materials, products, processes, or services are involved.

(3) Degrees of transferability. There are degrees of transferability of skills ranging from very close similarities to remote and incidental similarities among jobs. A complete similarity of all three factors is not necessary for transferability. However, when skills are so specialized or have been acquired in such an isolated vocational setting (like many jobs in mining, agriculture, or fishing) that they are not readily usable in other industries, jobs, and work settings, we consider that they are not transferable.

(4) Transferability of skills for persons of advanced age. If you are of advanced age (age 55 or older), and you have a severe impairment(s) that limits you to sedentary or light work, we will find that you cannot make an adjustment to other work unless you have skills that you can transfer to other skilled or semiskilled work (or you have recently completed education which provides for direct entry into skilled work) that you can do despite your impairment(s). We will decide if you have transferable skills as follows. If you are of advanced age and you have a severe impairment(s) that limits you to no more than sedentary work, we will find that you have skills that are transferable to skilled or semiskilled sedentary work only if the sedentary work is so similar to your previous work that you would need to make very little, if any, vocational adjustment in terms of tools, work processes, work settings, or the industry. (See § 404.1567(a) and § 201.00(f) of appendix 2.) If you are of advanced age but have not attained age 60, and you have a severe impairment(s) that limits you to no more than light work, we will apply the rules in paragraphs (d)(1) through (d)(3) of this section to decide if you have skills that are transferable to skilled or semiskilled light work (see § 404.1567(b)). If you are closely approaching retirement age (age 60 or older) and you have a severe impairment(s) that limits you to no more than light work, we will find that you have skills that are transferable to skilled or semiskilled light work only if the light work is so similar to your previous work that you would need to make very little, if any, vocational adjustment in terms of tools, work processes, work settings, or the industry. (See § 404.1567(b) and Rule 202.00(f) of appendix 2 to this subpart.)

[45 FR 55584, Aug. 20, 1980, as amended at 65 FR 18000, Apr. 6, 2000; 73 FR 64197, Oct. 29, 2008]

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 999 cases (508 in the last 5 years), 1981–2026 · leading case: Bray v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 554 F.3d 1219 (9th Cir. 2009).

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Bray v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 554 F.3d 1219 (9th Cir. 2009). · cites it 8× “Applicable Law The concept of transferability of skills is delineated in 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d) as follows: (1).”

Kyle v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 609 F.3d 847 (6th Cir. 2010). · cites it 5× “The ALJ must then assess whether the claimant has transferable skills pursuant to 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d)(l)-(3) and SSR 82-41.”

Verna B. TERRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Louis W. SULLIVAN, M.D., Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., Defendant-Appellee, 903 F.2d 1273 (9th Cir. 1990). · cites it 5× “See also 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d). In addition, before the Secretary can find the claimant’s skills transferable to sedentary work, he must show that “very little, if any, vocational adjustment [is] required.”

Gail Martin v. Andrew M. Saul, 950 F.3d 369 (7th Cir. 2020). · cites it 2× “See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (a). As we have labored mightily to explain, how- ever, the relative diﬃculty of a specific job assignment does not necessarily correlate with a claimant’s ability to stay on task or perform at the speed required by a particular No.”

Brent Jensen v. Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 436 F.3d 1163 (10th Cir. 2006). · cites it 3× “” 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d)(4). “Accordingly, it is not enough that persons of advanced age are capable of doing unskilled work; to be not disabled, they must have acquired skills from their past work that are transferable to skilled or semi-skilled work.”

David A. Draegert v. Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 311 F.3d 468 (2d Cir. 2002). · cites it 3× “,] 55 or older),” 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d)(4) (2002), the ALJ called a vocational expert (“VE”) to give an opinion not only as to whether Draegert could perform his old job but also as to the transferability of his work skills to new jobs.”

Dolores Wallace, Appellant, v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 722 F.2d 1150 (3rd Cir. 1983). · cites it 3× “A careful reading of the pertinent regulations, 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (a) and (b), makes it difficult to classify the job of record inspector as significantly more than unskilled, particularly in view of the minimal time required to become proficient at it.”

Russell Hess, III v. Comm'r Soc. Sec., 931 F.3d 198 (3rd Cir. 2019). “" See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1568 (a), 416.968(a) ("Unskilled work is work which needs little or no judgment to do simple duties that can be learned on the job in a short period of time.”

Joyce Hargress v. Soc. Sec. Admin., Comm'r, 883 F.3d 1302 (11th Cir. 2018). “In making his RFC finding, the ALJ took into consideration Hargress's symptoms for each of her impairments and the extent to which the symptoms could reasonably be accepted as consistent with the objective medical evidence and other evidence.”

Robert M. Wilson v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 378 F.3d 541 (6th Cir. 2004). “Wilson contends that the ALJ’s failure to identify Wilson’s transferable skills constitutes reversible error.”

Joshua Lanigan v. Nancy A. Berryhill, 865 F.3d 558 (7th Cir. 2017). “The hypothetical begins by positing a person capable of performing “simple, routine, and repetitive tasks.”

Shirley J. Vertigan v. William A. Halter, Acting Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 260 F.3d 1044 (9th Cir. 2001). “” 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568 (d)(1). According to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Ms.”

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(4) — 1 case

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(a) — 10 cases

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Leichter v. Saul (E.D. Pa. 2021).

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(b) — 2 cases

Joseph CALDARULO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Otis R. BOWEN, M.D., Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., Defendant-Appellee, 857 F.2d 410 (7th Cir. 1988).

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(c) — 4 cases

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(d) — 3 cases

Nance v. Barnhart, 194 F. Supp. 2d 302 (D. Del. 2002).

Richard Leon v. Nancy A. Berryhill (C.D. Cal. 2020).

Watkins v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. (N.D. Tex. 2020).

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(d)(1) — 1 case

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(d)(2) — 2 cases

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— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(d)(4) — 6 cases

McDonaugh v. Astrue, 672 F. Supp. 2d 542 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).

(SS) Sanguras v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. (E.D. Cal. 2023).

Nichols v. Berryhill (E.D. Mo. 2020).

Doreson v. Saul (N.D. Ill. 2022).

Hurrelbrink v. Soc. Sec. Admin., Comm'r of (E.D. Tenn. 2022).

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