Physical Demands of Work, Exits from the Workforce, and Participation in Federal Disability Programs

In 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics launched a 3-year effort to survey U.S. employers regarding the requirements of work. The new survey, the Occupational Requirements Survey, captures physical demands, education and skill requirements, and other requirements of work. The data will be used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to administer programs that serve individuals who develop disabling health conditions, as it will allow that agency to determine whether disability applicants can perform work that exists in the economy. Coinciding with the release of the new BLS data is the second wave of the redesigned Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a rich household survey that allows for measuring transitions from the workforce and transitions to federal programs. In this paper, I characterize detailed occupations based on their physical demands using the ORS. For example, the ORS measures the strength requirements of work (sedentary, light, medium, heavy, or very heavy). I then match the occupational requirements to individuals in the SIPP using occupational codes that are common across the two data sources.

Using the combined data, I test whether adverse health events differentially affect exits from the workforce depending on whether the physical demands of a person’s work are high or low. Preliminary results indicate that declines in health status or a hospitalization during the course of the SIPP are associated with exits from the workforce in general and especially among individuals in physically demanding work. These preliminary findings are based on an early release of the Occupational Requirements Survey and will be refined upon release of the final data in January 2019. In addition to exits from the workforce, I will examine whether adverse health events during the course of the SIPP are associated with participation in federal disability programs such as the Social Security Disability Insurance program and whether the associations are stronger for individuals who were employed in physically demanding work. This research brings together two new and important federal data sources to foster improved understanding of physical work requirements and their role in predicting workforce exit and participation in federal programs.