Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 17-2041, #345 of 1,410 by filings
Chemical Engineers
- Biggest sponsor
- AMGEN INC. · 2% of its filings
- Busiest state
- CA · 21% of its filings
- Major group
- Architecture and engineering · SOC 17
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
This rate is level with the field
Over 82 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Why
The 95% interval runs up to a 13.5% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.
Median wage
$111,229
all PERM $103,272
Filings
82
#345 of 1,410
Approval
93.9%
field 96.8%
Median days
390
87 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$111,229above 75%
Approval rate
93.9%ahead of 31%
Median days to decision
390 daysahead of 80%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- AMGEN INC. 2 filings
- ASPENTECH CORPORATION 2 filings
- GENENTECH INC. 2 filings
- GREAT FAME MANAGEMENT USA INC. 2 filings
- MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC 2 filings
- ModernaTX, Inc. 2 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 12 of 82 filings, 15% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 9 filings
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Loewy, LLP 9 filings
- FOSTER LLP 4 filings
- Peters Immigration Law PC 4 filings
- Dentons Cohen Grigsby P.C. 3 filings
- Law Offices of MaoSen Yieh 3 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 32 of 82 filings, 39% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 17
- Texas 15
- Massachusetts 8
- New York 8
- Pennsylvania 4
- Virginia 4
How this is counted
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 56 of 82 filings.
Where the work is
- Houston, TX 9
- New York, NY 3
- Norwood, MA 3
- San Diego, CA 3
- Boston, MA 2
- Manassas, VA 2
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 22 of 82 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- India 560
- China 139
- Canada 91
- Mexico 55
- South Korea 45
- Taiwan 32
Worker's education
- Master's 658
- Bachelor's 379
- Doctorate 201
- None 9
- Other 9
- High School 4
Visa held when filed
- H-1B 917
- L-1 137
- F-1 77
- TN 50
- E-2 15
- H-4 6
Schools
- LAMAR UNIVERSITY 41
- STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 32
- NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY 23
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 21
- ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 16
- LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY 16
Fields of study
- CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 710
- CHEMISTRY 62
- MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 39
- PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING 27
- BIOTECHNOLOGY 21
- PETROLEUM ENGINEERING 13
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- United States21,070 jobs
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TXHouston
- Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NHNorwood, Boston
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJNew York
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CASan Diego
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WVManassas
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $125,040 | ||||
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $138,120 | $108,160 | $131,830 | $155,522 | $179,192 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $109,460 | $72,384 | $94,994 | $117,624 | $140,234 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $126,830 | $85,904 | $105,976 | $126,048 | $146,120 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | — | $90,688 | $116,480 | $142,272 | $168,064 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $132,820 | $93,018 | $114,275 | $135,533 | $156,790 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
DOL's levels for this job in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX, year by year
Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $108,160 | $131,830 | $155,522 | $179,192 |
| 2025-26 | $108,243 | $132,891 | $157,539 | $182,187 |
| 2024-25 | $109,699 | $138,403 | $167,128 | $195,832 |
| 2023-24 | $101,504 | $129,958 | $158,392 | $186,846 |
| 2022-23 | $108,222 | $142,002 | $175,781 | $209,560 |
| 2021-22 | $95,326 | $121,326 | $147,306 | $173,306 |
What the job is
Design chemical plant equipment and devise processes for manufacturing chemicals and products, such as gasoline, synthetic rubber, plastics, detergents, cement, paper, and pulp, by applying principles and technology of chemistry, physics, and engineering.
- Preparation
- Considerable Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 4
- DOL's education basis
- Bachelor's degree
- Wage year 2026-27, on DOL's Appendix A list
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +4.7%
- About 1,100 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Develop safety procedures to be employed by workers operating equipment or working in close proximity to ongoing chemical reactions.
- Troubleshoot problems with chemical manufacturing processes.
- Monitor and analyze data from processes and experiments.
- Evaluate chemical equipment and processes to identify ways to optimize performance or to ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations.
- Design and plan layout of equipment.
- Prepare estimate of production costs and production progress reports for management.
The education workers in it report
- 91%
Bachelor's Degree
Titles people use for it
Chemical Engineer, Development Engineer, Engineer, Process Engineer, Engineering Scientist, Process Control Engineer, Project Engineer, Refinery Process Engineer.
Related jobs: Materials Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers, Materials Scientists, Chemists, Biofuels/Biodiesel Technology and Product Development Managers, Industrial Engineers.
This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 345 of 1,410 by volume: 344 filed at least as many filings, and 1,065 filed no more.
- Just above
- Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers 82 filings
- Just below
- Radiologists 81 filings
Other architecture and engineering roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
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.
- #344 Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers 82 filings · 1 denied
- #357 Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors 78 filings · 2 denied
- #300 Solar Energy Systems Engineers 103 filings · 1 denied
- #290 Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians 110 filings · 4 denied
- #287 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER 111 filings · 5 denied
- #286 Energy Engineers, Except Wind and Solar 111 filings · 3 denied
The same job on H-1B
6,454 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $108,243 a year; the middle half ran $86,471 to $129,542. By state and year in the salary explorer.
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median 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. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 17-2041. 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 all 82 wages 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, so nothing here is a property of Chemical Engineers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 82 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is AMGEN INC.. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
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.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
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.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
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. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it