PERM Tracker
Live DOL data · Automatic deadlines
Skip to main content

Updated

PERM jobs in Chicago, IL

Decisions
20,237
Approved
97.6%
Median certified wage
$106,995
Years
FY2016 to FY2026

Year by year

  • certified
  • denied
  • withdrawn
Fiscal years run October to September. More

Fiscal years run October to September. FY2016 to FY2023 come from DOL's closed-year files, and FY2024 on from its current ones. The newest year is partial until DOL publishes its fourth quarter.

Every year as a table
Fiscal year Certified Denied Withdrawn
FY2016 1,397 54 45
FY2017 1,243 32 37
FY2018 1,699 44 48
FY2019 1,899 35 37
FY2020 1,950 57 59
FY2021 1,848 56 57
FY2022 1,654 48 74
FY2023 1,718 55 115
FY2024 1,669 37 112
FY2025 2,095 21 172
FY2026 1,717 25 128

Top sponsors

Top occupations

Industries

Countries of citizenship

Worker's education

  • Master's 7,408
  • Bachelor's 6,508
  • None 662
  • Doctorate 559
  • Other 371
  • High School 251
  • Associate's 68

Visa held when filed

  • H-1B 12,288
  • L-1 1,071
  • F-1 781
  • NOT IN USA 492
  • B-2 163
  • TN 150
  • E-2 72
  • J-1 63
  • H-4 55
  • E-3 42

H-1B in Chicago, IL

68,328 labor condition applications name a worksite here, FY2020 to FY2026, and DOL certified 65,130 (95%). An LCA is the employer's wage attestation before an H-1B petition, so it counts positions offered. It doesn't count people hired.

Jobs, certified LCAs since FY2024

  1. Software Developers 5,897
  2. Data Scientists 2,012
  3. Computer Systems Engineers/Architects 1,871
  4. Accountants and Auditors 1,074
  5. Financial and Investment Analysts 867
  6. Management Analysts 824
  7. Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers 817
  8. Computer and Information Systems Managers 773
  9. Operations Research Analysts 739
  10. Financial Quantitative Analysts 602

Where Chicago, IL sits

Counties
Cook and DuPage counties
Census places Chicago city in both
Metro area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Metropolitan statistical area
DOL wage area
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
The area DOL sets prevailing wages for, wage year 2026-27

103.6 is BEA's price level for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area in 2024, against 100 for the country as a whole; for housing rents it's 112.0. A salary here buys about 97% of what the same salary buys at the national price level.

What these jobs pay in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27
  • Software Developers
    1,324 PERM decisions
  • Computer and Information Systems Managers
    883 PERM decisions
  • Management Analysts
    874 PERM decisions
  • Accountants and Auditors
    715 PERM decisions
  • Statisticians
    587 PERM decisions
  • Financial Analysts
    452 PERM decisions
$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k
  • middle half of pay (BLS)
  • median
  • 10th to 90th percentile
  • DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
Market pay and DOL wage levels for the jobs filed most here
Job BLS median Level I Level II Level III Level IV
Software Developers $134,380 $92,789 $117,083 $141,398 $165,693
Computer and Information Systems Managers $173,760 $124,842 $154,690 $184,517 $214,365
Management Analysts $105,090 $67,475 $91,915 $116,334 $140,774
Accountants and Auditors $82,360 $62,920 $77,376 $91,853 $106,309
Statisticians $122,180 $88,358 $106,184 $124,010 $141,835
Financial Analysts $101,750 $72,072 $92,269 $112,486 $132,683

Any job in any area, and every wage year since 2021-22, in the wage-level tool.

The jobs filed most in Chicago, IL: what employers in the metro report paying everyone in each, and DOL's four prevailing wage levels there. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

The worksite city on each application, from DOL's decided cases since FY2016. Spellings of one city are pooled, and a city counts as one place per state.

Case data through Jun 30, 2026 · LCA disclosures through Jun 30, 2026 · Census places and metros through Jan 1, 2026 · BLS market pay through May 31, 2025 · DOL wage tables through Jul 1, 2026. How these figures are counted. Spotted an error? Tell us; every fix is dated in the corrections log.

The sources in full

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

LCA disclosures: DOL quarterly LCA disclosure files (www.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Census places and metros: Census Bureau Gazetteer and metro delineation files (census.gov) · data through Jan 1, 2026 · yearly

BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring

DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july

What each source includes

Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.

LCA disclosures: Certified and denied H-1B labor condition applications only, with the wage offered.

Census places and metros: Where each worksite city sits: its county, metro area and DOL wage area, matched to Census's place and county files. A city Census lists in no single place is left unmatched. This site doesn't guess it.

BLS market pay: Pay employers report for everyone in each job, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). It's shown nationally, by state and by metro. It covers citizens and immigrants alike, and it isn't drawn from PERM offers.

DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. They're the floors an offer is held to. They don't show what anyone was paid.

Cite this page

Waiting on a PERM case?

  • When it'll likely be decided
  • An email when DOL moves it

It's on your ETA-9089 receipt. A case number looks like G-100-26125-868956.

Don't have the number?