202 – SPEED: Statistics in Government and Engineering, Part 2A
Seeing Through the Data: Data Visualization Methods of the Occupational Requirements Survey
Jenette Muhar
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Michelle Myers
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) is the newest survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor statistics (BLS). Created as a way for Social Security Administration (SSA) to be able to see what abilities workers need in order to perform a job, we rely on workers, managers or human resource specialists, to provide us with levels and/or durations of time spent doing things like lifting, driving, typing etc.. The ORS, although similar to other data sets such as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), measures a unique combination of elements; leading to the need for us to provide data reviewers and those doing estimate validation with some context to better understand the relationships between elements. In response to this, we have enhanced our review systems by updating our process of comparing data across multiple sample units, as well as, integrating data visualizations to aid reviewers in identifying outlier data and pinpoint relationships among variables. This paper details the improvements to our review and validation processes, the usefulness and need of creating relevant visualizations, and the outcomes we have seen since the implementation of these new process in ORS.