PER CURIAM.
Henry Chambers, Jr. appeals the district court's order affirming the Commissioner's denial of his application for disability insurance benefits, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). On appeal, Chambers argues that: (1) the Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") erred by assigning little weight to the opinion of a consultative psychologist; and (2) the ALJ erred by relying on the vocational expert's testimony and recommendations for occupations. After careful review, we affirm.
We normally review the Commissioner's decision for substantial evidence.
First, we are unpersuaded by Chambers's claim that the ALJ erred by assigning insufficient weight to the opinion of a consultative psychologist. In assessing whether a claimant is disabled, an ALJ must consider the medical opinions in a case record together with the rest of the relevant evidence received. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1527(b). Generally, the longer a treating source has treated a claimant and the more times a treating source has seen a claimant, the more weight the ALJ will give to the source's medical opinion.
Furthermore, the more consistent an opinion is with the record as a whole, the more weight the ALJ will give to that opinion. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1527(c)(4). The ALJ will consider a claimant's daily activities when determining the symptoms and severity of an impairment.
Here, the ALJ did not err by assigning little weight to the opinion of a consultative psychologist, Dr. William Beaty. First, the ALJ properly reviewed all medical opinions in the case record, including those of the nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical personnel, to determine the severity of Chambers's impairments and how they affected his ability to work.
Second, the consultative psychologist's assessment was based primarily on Chambers's report of subjective symptoms, which the ALJ determined was not reliable. The ALJ explained that he questioned Chambers's credibility because Chambers's description of his daily activities and capacity for social functioning suggested a greater capacity than that alleged during his hearing testimony, and Chambers's work history and refusal to look for new work raised a question as to whether Chambers's continued unemployment was actually due to medical impairments.
The ALJ also determined that Dr. Beaty's opinion was inconsistent with the record as a whole. In particular, as we've described above, his opinion was inconsistent with the opinions of Chambers's treatment providers at Meridian and Chambers's own statements that he was able to use the bus and perform a good range of daily activities.
We also find no merit to Chambers's claim that the ALJ erred by relying on the vocational expert's testimony and recommendations for occupations. If the Commissioner determines that the claimant cannot perform his past work, the Commissioner must establish substantial evidence that occupations exist in the national economy that the claimant can perform.
Job descriptions in the DOT include specific vocational preparation time ("SVP") numbers and reasoning levels, which supply supplemental information about the listed jobs. Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Occupational Definitions (4th ed., rev. 1991) ("DOT"). A job with an SVP of two means that that job requires anything beyond a short demonstration up to and including one month of time to learn the techniques, acquire the information, and develop the facility needed for average performance in the job.
Here, the ALJ established substantial evidence that occupations existed in the national economy that Chambers could perform by asking the vocational expert a hypothetical question that set out all of Chambers's impairments.
Instead of arguing that the ALJ erred by failing to inform the vocational expert of his impairments, Chambers seems to argue that the suggested occupations do not account for the limitations required to accommodate his impairments, specifically simple work and a low stress work environment. As for simple work, Chambers argues that jobs with reasoning levels of two or three require more mental capacity than that which would be required for simple work. But the job of housekeeping cleaner has a reasoning level of one. DOT § 323.687-014. As for jobs labeled with reasoning levels of two or three, they may also be jobs with simple tasks. Furthermore, although the job of hospital food worker has a reasoning level of three, it also has a SVP of two, indicating that it requires, at a maximum, one month of time to learn the techniques, acquire the information, and develop the facility needed for average performance in the job. DOT § 319.677-014. That job is, therefore, consistent with unskilled work, which needs little or no judgment to do simple duties that can be learned on the job in a short period of time, usually within 30 days. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1568(a). Thus, Chambers has not shown that the jobs of housekeeping cleaner or hospital food worker require more mental capacity than allowed for in the limitations outlined by the ALJ.
As for the requirement of a low stress environment, Chambers has not presented any evidence that the occupations of hospital food service worker and housekeeping cleaner did not satisfy this requirement. The definitions of the occupations do not mention stress and the vocational expert did not mention stress.
Lastly, Chambers's argument that the ALJ should have questioned the vocational expert about any inconsistency with the DOT fails. First, there was no apparent inconsistency — indeed, Chambers did not question the vocational expert about any inconsistency or raise the issue before the ALJ, and the vocational expert affirmed that his testimony was consistent with the DOT. Second, even if there was a conflict between the DOT and the jobs identified by the vocational expert in response to the hypothetical question, the testimony of the vocational expert outweighs the DOT because the DOT is not the sole source of admissible information concerning jobs.