All occupations · #372 of 1,410 by volume

Animal Caretaker

SOC 45-2093, in the farming, fishing and forestry major group. 74 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 65 certified and 6 denied.

Median wage

$27,000

all PERM $103,272

Filings

#372 of 1,410

Approval

91.5%

field 96.8%

Median days

384

93 faster than the field

Fig 01 Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$27,000above 5%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

91.5%ahead of 19%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

384 daysahead of 90%

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one. DOL PERM disclosure files

Who files this job

The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.

Sponsors filing it

The employers with the most applications under this code. 37 of 74 filings, 50% of the total.

Firms filing it

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 38 of 74 filings, 51% of the total.

Where the jobs are

Iowa 21
Louisiana 10
Minnesota 8
Colorado 5
California 4
North Dakota 4

The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 52 of 74 filings.

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 372 of 1,410 by volume: 371 filed at least as many filings, and 1,038 filed no more.

Just above: Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping 74 filings
Just below: Retail Salespersons 74 filings

Other farming, fishing and forestry roles

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.

Reading the wage

This is the median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to.

What these numbers don't say

The code is the identity: Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
A median isn’t an offer: It's the middle of every wage committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
Approval isn’t about the occupation: The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.

The window these figures cover

DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.

Weighing an offer?

Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.

Setting one?

All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.

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

Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest