Wanted: Bat Handler

Out of work? The Department of Labor last week issued an updated edition of its Dictionary of Occupational Titles, used primarily by employment counselors. The 5-lb. catalogue defines, and assigns a nine-digit index number to each of 20,000 job titles, including such esoterica as sword swallower (159.647-010), rock breaker (770.687-034) and brassiere-cup-mold cutter (781.682-010).

The new edition of the dictionary, the first since 1965, dropped 3.500 obsolete titles, such as bowling-pin setters, but added 2.100 new ones. To comply with the equal employment opportunity law, cataloguers tortuously rewrote some old job titles. A bat boy became a bat handler, a shoeshine boy a shoe shiner, and a draftsman a drafter. But the title of job No. 159.647-022, someone who "parades across stage to provide background for a chorus line," remained unchanged. Even bureaucrats could not swallow "show person."

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