Illinois District Court Reverses ALJ

November 19, 2015. Here, the ALJ found claimant to be not disabled, and found that he had the RFC to perform sedentary work, based on the vocational expert’s testimony that jobs exist in the national economy that the claimant could perform. The vocational expert’s testimony was challenged by the claimant’s counsel at the hearing, but the ALJ did not inquire further to determine if the testimony was reliable. The vocational expert relied on SkillTRAN, a program used to estimate the number of jobs existing, however, its reliability was never determined by the court in this case. The district court held that the ALJ’s determination that there were jobs in the national economy that the claimant could perform, despite his impairments, was not based on substantial evidence.