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O*NET Advantages and Disadvantages
O*NET has major advantages and disadvantages due to its generality.
Simpler application
Because it combines many discrete jobs into relatively few families, O*NET requires fewer descriptions and is easier for users to master.
Reduced application
Because of its clustering approach, O*NET provides less position-specific detail and is more useful to the career entrant/college graduate than to the career changer.
Career planning. While the DOT provides separate descriptions for all types of accountants (cost, forensic, tax, etc.), O*NET clusters them all into one accountant/auditor occupation with one general description.
Typically, first-line supervisors are included within the same job family as the positions they manage. Likewise, all paraprofessionals are clustered with the professionals they assist.
Such summaries are sufficient for counselors to guide students to broad areas of study or general fields of work. But this means that O*NET is NOT helpful for the kind of specific job analysis that must be conducted by Human Resources staff, compensation specialists, disability administrators, vocational counselors, expert witnesses, etc.
Example: The computer programming job family in O*NET contains hundreds of specific and unique jobs, yet their functions and worth are not interchangeable. O*NET does NOT recognize this fact.
A Vocational Expert describes O*NET this way:
"Under O*NET most of the people in the plant where I work would fall under one O*NET category, but each job is very different, I don't rely on the job descriptions in any of the publications.
I think that we're dealing with it in the same way as we have dealt with other dated or deficient sources: more research focusing on labor market surveys, job analyses, and triangulation with other sources that confirm, modify, or supplement the information available to us.
I don't think a lot of Vocational Experts are giving much weight to the information on the O*NET because they understand that it's basically reworked, complicated, and shrunken DOT data. Has anyone talked about the Emperor's clothes?"
– SSA Chat Board
Disabled workers. You can be extremely specific about job descriptions and requirements when using the DOT. But using O*NET, you can find almost any level of attribute within what is a "job family" and not a "job." This means O*NET is NOT useful for disability analyses.
Example: The DOT can tell you if a job requires lifting 50 pounds and can direct you to "lesser" jobs that require lifting 20 pounds, etc. O*NET, however, cannot definitively tell you if a job requires lifting and carrying of 50 pounds, since it clusters so many jobs together into a single "occupation."
SSA objections:
Because of this clustering, the SSA categorically objects to the use of O*NET for disability determinations. Their reasons follow:
- Task lists and occupational requirements for an occupational unit (OU) do NOT reflect task lists and requirements for a number of jobs that were folded into that OU.
- Users are unable to discern entry-level work from journey-level work within OU. The aggregation of O*NET OU's hides the true differences among jobs that assess vocational profiles in terms of the mental or physical limitations resulting from impairments.
- Averaging of tasks combined with the averaging of ratings results in flattened scores. Therefore, in O*NET many occupations seem to require lower or higher ability levels than they might in actuality. This prevents accurate assessments of residual functional capacity (RFC) to perform past relevant work or any other work in the national economy.
- Many of O*NET OU's are made up of DOT job titles that are grouped by factors (i.e., O*NET is truly a summary, a simplified DOT).
- Many of O*NET OU's reflect work that varies widely in ratings. 50% of the OU's reflect unreliable job analyst ratings for variables in one of the six O*NET domains. These ratings are not available for public review.
Furthermore, SSA recognizes that O*NET's data collection method fails to permit cross-domain links to determine whether an individual could meet the physical and cognitive requirements of another occupation. Without a cross-domain link, users CANNOT determine if other occupations exist that reflect similar (often low-level) requirements in relevant positions.
Q: So, who does O*NET serve?
A: In any classification system, some "niche groups" must be left unserved. With O*NET it has been the middle-aged job seeker and the disabled. The Department of Labor is clear that O*NET is to be used for "Career Guidance only" and not for selection purposes. It was specifically designed to serve the career entrant.
| POSITIONS O*NET DOES NOT SERVE WELL | |
|---|---|
| Career – Transition Assessment | Rehabilitation – Transferable Skills Assessment |
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Memory Jogger
Which group was O*NET designed to serve well?