To evaluate a claimant’s work as generally performed in the national economy, locate
the occupational counterpart for the claimant’s job in the Dictionary of Occupational
Titles (DOT).
If there is no occupational counterpart in the DOT, you cannot evaluate past relevant
(PRW) as generally performed in the national economy unless you have evidence from
other reliable occupational information that provides this. See DI 25015.030, Use of Vocational Expert and Vocational Specialist Evidence, and Other Reliable
Occupational Information in Disability Decisions—SSR 00-4p.
NOTE: When evaluating PRW the claimant performed in the military, do not use a “civilian”
counterpart to a military job to conclude that the claimant could perform his or her
past relevant work “as generally performed in the national economy.” If the military
occupation is not defined in the DOT, the step 4 determination for these cases is
an analysis of the claimant’s ability to perform his or her military occupation as
he or she performed the job. The DOT does not provide information about the physical
and mental demands of all military occupations, so we are not always able to evaluate
military occupations as generally performed in the national economy unless we have
evidence from other reliable occupational information that provides this. Therefore,
if the claimant’s military occupation is not in the DOT and if the claimant is unable
to perform his or her military PRW as he or she describes it, proceed to step 5. At
step 5 of sequential evaluation, a claimant may be able to use skills he or she gained
from skilled or semiskilled military PRW to adjust to other work.