§ 220.133 Skill requirements.

(a) General. To evaluate skills and to help determine the existence in the national economy of work the claimant is able to do, occupations are classified as unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled. In classifying these occupations, the Board uses materials published by the Department of Labor. (b) Unskilled work. Unskilled work is work which needs little or no judgment to do simple duties that can be learned on the job in a short period of time (30 days). The job may or may not require considerable strength. A job is considered unskilled if the claimant can usually learn to do the job in 30 days, and little job training and judgment are needed. The claimant does not gain work skills by doing unskilled jobs. For example, jobs are considered unskilled if primary work duties are— (1) Handling; (2) Feeding; (3) Offbearing (placing or removing materials from machines which are automatic or operated by others); or (4) Machine tending. (c) Semi-skilled work. Semi-skilled work is work which needs some skills but does not require doing the more complex work duties. A job may be classified as semi-skilled where coordination and dexterity are necessary, as when hand or feet must be moved quickly to do repetitive tasks. Semi-skilled jobs may require— (1) Alertness and close attention to watching machine processes; (2) Inspecting, testing, or otherwise looking for irregularities; (3) Tending or guarding equipment, property, materials, or persons against loss, damage, or injury; or (4) Other types of activities which are similarly less complex than skilled work but more complex than unskilled work. (d) Skilled work. Skilled work requires qualifications in which a person uses judgment to determine the machine and manual operations to be performed in order to obtain the proper form, quality, or quantity of material to be produced. Skilled jobs may require— (1) Laying out work; (2) Estimating quality; (3) Determining suitability and needed quantities of materials; (4) Making precise measurements; (5) Reading blueprints or other specifications; (6) Making necessary computations or mechanical adjustments to control or regulate work; or (7) Dealing with people, facts, figures or abstract ideas at a high level of complexity. (e) Skills that can be used in other work (transferability)—(1) What the Board means by transferable skills. The Board considers the claimant to have skills that can be used in other jobs, when the skilled or semi-skilled work activities the claimant did in past work can be used to meet the requirements of skilled or semi-skilled work activities of other jobs or kinds of work. This depends largely on the similarity of occupationally significant work activities among different jobs. (2) How the Board determines skills that can be transferred to other jobs. Transferability is most probable and meaningful among jobs in which— (i) The same or a lesser degree of skill is required; (ii) The same or similar tools and machines are used; and (iii) The same or similar raw materials, products, processes, or services are involved. (3) Degrees of transferability. There are degrees of transferability of skills ranging from very close similarities to remote and incidental similarities among jobs. A complete similarity of all three factors is not necessary for transferability. However, when skills are so specialized or have been acquired in such an isolated vocational setting (like many jobs in mining, agriculture, or fishing) that they are not readily usable in other industries, jobs, and work settings, they are considered not transferable.