Table 8.Estimated occupational distributions of unemployed SSI recipients, by occupational-choice model aOccupationSSI recipientsNon-SSI recipients with—No disability Any disability Work disabilityTotal 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00Management, professional, and related 10.84 19.70 15.67 15.04Management 1.84 6.28 4.12 4.20Business and financial operations 1.48 2.65 1.82 1.75Computer and mathematical, architecture andengineering, life, physical and social science 0.25 2.79 2.17 1.92Community and social services 1.78 0.88 1.16 1.11Legal 0.37 0.52 0.45 0.47Education, training, and library 2.11 2.44 2.31 2.13Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media 1.71 1.34 1.26 1.20Health-care practitioner and technical 1.31 2.80 2.38 2.25Service 34.33 22.73 29.21 30.01Health-care support 2.00 3.19 3.71 3.43Protective service 1.39 2.15 2.21 2.19Food preparation and serving related 9.82 8.25 10.23 10.21Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance 14.34 4.96 7.90 8.79Personal care and service 6.79 4.18 5.17 5.39Sales and office 23.51 27.28 24.67 24.34Sales and related 9.62 11.41 10.96 10.71Office and administrative support 13.88 15.87 13.71 13.62Farming, fishing, and forestry 1.00 0.74 0.81 0.75Construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair 4.54 12.15 10.71 10.37Production, transportation, and material moving 25.78 17.40 18.92 19.50Production 11.49 8.94 8.82 8.69Transportation and material moving 14.29 8.47 10.10 10.81SOURCE: Author's calculations using the 2007 American Community Survey.NOTES: The sum of individual categories may not equal the total because of rounding.a. The occupational-choice models are based on separate multinomial logit regressions of occupation for each population group.Covariates in all models include sex, ethnicity, race, marital status, education, age, and age squared. The disabled, work-disabled, andworking-SSI models also include disability type as additional covariates. All estimates use ACS balanced repeated replicate sampleweights. See Table A-3 for the results of the models.panel A). If currently unemployed or non-LFP SSIrecipients were placed in occupations according to theoccupational distribution of currently employed SSIrecipients, the difference between the groups wouldbe minimal. Only about 5 percent of the populationwould need to change occupations for parity (Table 10,panel B).About 16 percent of the population would have tochange occupations for unemployed SSI recipients andnonrecipients without a disability to reach occupationalparity; similarly, 17 percent of non-LFP SSI recipientsand nonrecipients without a disability would haveto change occupations. Surprisingly, the differencesbetween the distributions of unemployed recipients andnonrecipients with any disability or a work-related disabilityare slightly smaller than those between workingrecipients and unemployed recipients.DiscussionThere are several reasons why differences between theoccupational distributions of the groups do not disappearwhen controlling for observable demographiccharacteristics, human capital, and disability type.First, the working-age SSI population is composed oflow-income individuals with a disability defined to besevere and work limiting. It is unlikely that these individualsare physically, cognitively, or mentally capableof all the occupations available to the nondisabled or60 <strong>Social</strong> <strong>Security</strong> Bulletin • Vol. 69 • No. 3 • 2009
Table 9.Estimated occupational distributions of non–labor force participant SSI recipients, by occupationalchoicemodel aOccupationSSI recipientsNon-SSI recipients with—No disability Any disability Work disabilityTotal 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00Management, professional, and related 10.16 18.58 14.44 14.56Management 1.54 6.64 4.03 4.16Business and financial operations 1.71 2.48 1.83 1.91Computer and mathematical, architecture andengineering, life, physical and social science 0.20 2.02 1.57 1.52Community and social services 1.26 0.83 1.03 1.08Legal 0.43 0.46 0.39 0.36Education, training, and library 2.41 2.29 1.99 1.93Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media 1.34 1.10 1.04 1.14Health-care practitioner and technical 1.27 2.77 2.55 2.44Service 34.97 22.32 30.46 30.45Health-care support 2.70 3.36 4.01 3.74Protective service 1.38 1.77 2.17 2.16Food preparation and serving related 7.68 6.54 8.63 8.77Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance 14.77 6.25 9.71 9.78Personal care and service 8.44 4.40 5.95 6.00Sales and office 20.57 28.99 24.81 25.13Sales and related 8.02 10.90 10.03 10.33Office and administrative support 12.55 18.09 14.79 14.80Farming, fishing, and forestry 0.50 0.73 0.76 0.72Construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair 3.30 10.82 9.52 9.58Production, transportation, and material moving 30.50 18.56 20.01 19.57Production 14.98 9.93 9.71 9.53Transportation and material moving 15.52 8.63 10.30 10.04SOURCE: Author's calculations using the 2007 American Community Survey.NOTES: The sum of individual categories may not equal the total because of rounding.a. The occupational-choice models are based on separate multinomial logit regressions of occupation for each population group.Covariates in all models include sex, ethnicity, race, marital status, education, age, and age squared. The disabled, work-disabled, andworking-SSI models also include disability type as additional covariates. All estimates use ACS balanced repeated replicate sampleweights. See Table A-3 for the results of the models.disabled nonrecipient populations. For example, oneof the largest changes under the no-disability modelwould place almost 9 percent more individuals inconstruction occupations, which many SSI recipientssimply would not be able to do. Additionally,some recipients’ occupational choices may also beconstrained by an inability to work full time. Over70 percent of working SSI recipients work part time,compared with 17 percent of the population withouta disability (Table A-2). Section 1619(b) may ease thetransition from SSI to full-time employment, but itseffect is not clear.Second, SSI is a means-tested income supportprogram; therefore occupations that traditionallyhave high wages and salaries, such as most managementand professional occupations, will never havelarge numbers of SSI recipients. Workers in thoseoccupations typically earn more than an individualcan earn under SSI regulations while still receivingSSI payments. However, it is unlikely that many SSIrecipients would be able to obtain these occupationsgiven the average SSI recipient’s level of education andwork history.Third, the models, although similar to other modelsof occupational choice, are parsimonious and mostlikely suffer from some form of omitted variable(s)bias, which may bias the predictions. Similarly, manyobserved variables were not included in the model<strong>Social</strong> <strong>Security</strong> Bulletin • Vol. 69 • No. 3 • 2009 61
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Social SecuritySocial SecurityBulle
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Social SecurityBulletin Vol. 69, No
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Perspectives77 An Empirical Study o
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Selected Abbreviations—continuedM
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within the next few years (Aglira 2
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coverage varies significantly by ra
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Program Highlights, 2009Old-Age, Su