PERM Tracker
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Updated

PERM jobs in San Francisco, CA

Decisions
33,568
Approved
98.4%
Median certified wage
$147,100
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  • withdrawn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Fiscal year Certified Denied Withdrawn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 2,957 55 114
FY2017 2,534 41 70
FY2018 3,307 40 84
FY2019 2,913 64 67
FY2020 2,682 47 97
FY2021 3,283 44 92
FY2022 3,065 59 168
FY2023 2,968 47 193
FY2024 2,279 45 203
FY2025 3,558 26 202
FY2026 2,059 61 144

Top sponsors

Top occupations

Industries

Countries of citizenship

Worker's education

  • Master's 16,587
  • Bachelor's 8,558
  • Doctorate 880
  • None 563
  • Other 362
  • High School 78
  • Associate's 68

Visa held when filed

  • H-1B 22,334
  • L-1 1,767
  • F-1 877
  • TN 558
  • O-1 212
  • E-3 200
  • NOT IN USA 169
  • E-2 168
  • J-1 161
  • H-4 63

H-1B in San Francisco, CA

90,152 labor condition applications name a worksite here, FY2020 to FY2026, and DOL certified 85,282 (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 10,661
  2. Data Scientists 2,358
  3. Computer Systems Engineers/Architects 1,982
  4. Computer and Information Systems Managers 1,324
  5. Financial and Investment Analysts 1,094
  6. Accountants and Auditors 1,017
  7. Operations Research Analysts 863
  8. Management Analysts 675
  9. Computer and Information Research Scientists 639
  10. Search Marketing Strategists 600

Where San Francisco, CA sits

County
San Francisco County
Census places San Francisco city in it
Metro area
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Metropolitan statistical area
DOL wage area
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
The area DOL sets prevailing wages for, wage year 2026-27

115.6 is BEA's price level for the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metro area in 2024, against 100 for the country as a whole; for housing rents it's 194.7. A salary here buys about 86% of what the same salary buys at the national price level.

What these jobs pay in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27
  • Software Developers
    3,070 PERM decisions
  • Statisticians
    1,470 PERM decisions
  • Computer and Information Systems Managers
    1,469 PERM decisions
  • Accountants and Auditors
    768 PERM decisions
  • Data Scientists
    764 PERM decisions
  • Management Analysts
    714 PERM decisions
$100k$200k$300k
  • 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 $186,640 $137,093 $165,131 $193,149 $221,187
Statisticians — $81,869 $111,176 $140,483 $169,790
Computer and Information Systems Managers $232,890 $167,565 $208,104 $248,643 $289,182
Accountants and Auditors $110,730 $78,146 $99,362 $120,557 $141,773
Data Scientists $170,110 $110,386 $142,438 $174,512 $206,565
Management Analysts $126,730 $73,258 $105,165 $137,093 $169,000

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

The jobs filed most in San Francisco, CA: 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?