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PERM Tracker

All occupations · #240 of 1,410 by volume

Food Scientists and Technologists

SOC 19-1012.00, in the life, physical and social science major group. 158 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 142 certified and 8 denied.

This rate is level with the field

Computed over 150 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 10.2% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records, so this record can't be told apart from the field in either direction.

Median wage

$90,728

all PERM $103,272

Filings

158

#240 of 1,410

Approval

94.7%

field 96.8%

Median days

492

15 slower than the field

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

Median offered wage

$90,728above 64%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

94.7%ahead of 36%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

492 daysahead of 5%

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
Fig 02 The wage ladder, year by year Food Scientists and Technologists, certified offers
  • 5th to 95th
  • 25th to 75th
  • Median
  • 10th and 90th

  1. FY2025

    $88,096 median · 56 certified cases

  2. FY2026

    $94,058 median · 81 certified cases

$50k$100k$150k
10th
$47,403
-23.3% since FY2025
Median
$94,058
+6.8% since FY2025
90th
$125,000
+3.3% since FY2025
95th
$145,059
+15.3% since FY2025

Each row is that fiscal year's certified filings, counted on their own. A percentile is over the year, so a year with far fewer cases behind it is a thinner measurement than one with more.

A median answers whether pay moved. The whole ladder answers which part of it moved, and those are not the same question: a distribution can hold its middle while its top stretches away. DOL PERM disclosure files, certified cases only

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

  1. Valley Queen Cheese Factory, Inc. 18 filings
  2. Kerry Inc. 4 filings
  3. Tate & Lyle Solutions USA, LLC 4 filings
  4. FRITO LAY INC. 3 filings
  5. Glanbia Nutritionals, Inc. 3 filings
  6. Rana Meal Solutions LLC 3 filings

The employers with the most applications under this code. 35 of 158 filings, 22% of the total.

Firms filing it

  1. Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP 25 filings
  2. Davis Immigration Lawyers PLLC 17 filings
  3. Corporate Immigration Partners, P.C. 5 filings
  4. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. 5 filings
  5. Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd. 4 filings
  6. Varnum LLP 4 filings

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 60 of 158 filings, 38% of the total.

Where the jobs are

  • California 27
  • South Dakota 18
  • New Jersey 14
  • Illinois 11
  • New York 11
  • Texas 10

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 91 of 158 filings.

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 240 of 1,410 by volume: 239 filed at least as many filings, and 1,170 filed no more.

Just above
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Pro 158 filings
Just below
Aerospace Engineers 157 filings

Other life, physical and social science 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