Opinion ID: 222830
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Production Worker Jobs

Text: Weatherbee also claims that the VE's testimony regarding his ability to work certain production worker jobs conflicted with the DOT. First, he contends that the VE's testimony should not have been relied on by the ALJ because the sample occupational title identified by the VEfabrication finisherdoes not exist in the DOT. Second, he argues that the VE's testimony conflicted with the DOT because the physical demands and skill requirements of many production worker jobs preclude an individual with Weatherbee's limitations from obtaining employment in those positions. We reject Weatherbee's assertion that the ALJ erred when it failed to resolve the discrepancy between the sample occupational title described by the VE and the title for the same job that is listed in the DOT. While Weatherbee is correct in his assertion that the job of fabrication finisher is not listed in the DOT, his argument that the DOT does not contain any job titles similar to fabrication finisher misses the mark. The job of finisher is listed in Section 731.687-014 of the DOT, is described as an occupation dealing with the fabrication of dolls and is quite clearly the occupational listing that the VE was referring to in her testimony. See Lindsley v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 560 F.3d 601, 605 (6th Cir.2009) (stating that a minor discrepancy between the job title given by a VE and the title listed in the DOT is insufficient to create an apparent conflict). Given that the finisher job is listed as being appropriate for individuals who can work only in sedentary and unskilled positions, there was no apparent conflict between the VE's testimony and the DOT and, hence, no failure on the part of the ALJ. Weatherbee's second contention of error fares no better than his first. The fact that there are a large number of production jobs that are beyond the capabilities of sedentary, non-skilled laborers is not, on its own, sufficient to establish an apparent conflict between the VE's testimony and the DOT. The fifth step in the disability analysis framework focuses only on the types of work that the claimant can perform, not the positions the claimant is precluded from working. The VE testified that Weatherbee could work in the least demanding subset of production worker jobs and identified a production job that was appropriate for sedentary, unskilled individuals like Weatherbee. Because there was no apparent conflict with the VE's testimony and Weatherbee did not present evidence establishing that he could not work any type of production job, the ALJ did not err by relying on the VE's opinion.