A prominent issue in many, many hearings is whether there are jobs available in any significant number for people who are limited to sedentary, unskilled work. In other words, if you are limited to a mostly sit-down job, and you lack job skills for a sit-down job, are there any unskilled sit-down jobs out there which you are physically and mentally capable of doing? Unskilled, sedentary jobs are disappearing from our economy, but that isn’t stopping Social Security from finding there are such jobs out there for you to do.
At your hearing, Social Security will present a vocational expert (a specialist in jobs in the American economy) to testify that there are jobs available, and we will then hear that person testify as to some of the usual suspects out of the possible 137 such jobs (call-out operator, security monitor, table worker, etc.) There are issues one can raise by questioning the expert on these jobs, based on some more recent Bureau of Labor Statistics publications. There are also lines of attack based on your use of your hands, ability to stay on focused and on task, or ability to sit for long periods. But whatever the specifics of any particular case, for many people applying for benefits there needs to be some evidence, and questioning of the expert, about (1) the limits they face that prevent doing any such jobs and (2) the fact that these supposedly available jobs are disappearing from the economy.