Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 49-9021.00, #360 of 1,410 by filings

Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers

4 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: HVAC Services · 12% of its filings
Busiest state: TX · 14% of its filings
Major group: Installation, maintenance and repair · SOC 49

Weighing an offer for this job?

Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

This rate is level with the field

Over 70 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.

Why

The 95% interval runs up to a 11.9% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.

Median wage

$53,040

all PERM $103,272

Filings

#360 of 1,410

Approval

95.7%

field 96.8%

Median days

487

10 slower 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.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$53,040above 36%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

95.7%ahead of 43%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

487 daysahead of 13%

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. More

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 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

HVAC Services 9 filings
New Season Air Comfort LLC 3 filings
Ever-Ready Oil Company, Inc. 2 filings
Five Star Air Conditioning 2 filings
Hammel Heating and Air Conditioning 2 filings
K Komfort, Inc. 2 filings

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 20 of 77 filings, 26% of the total.

Firms filing it

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 21 of 77 filings, 27% of the total.

Where the jobs are

Texas 11
California 8
Georgia 7
Florida 5
Illinois 5
Arizona 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 40 of 77 filings.

Where the work is

Mission, TX 9
Atlanta, GA 3
Glendale, CA 3
Brooklyn, NY 2
Grafton, WI 2
Hackesack, NJ 2

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 21 of 77 filings.

Newspapers it advertised in

The Monitor

9 cases
Los Angeles Daily News

5 cases
Chicago Sun-Times

4 cases
Atlanta Journal and Constitution

3 cases
Sun-Sentinel

3 cases
The Washington Post

3 cases

How this is counted

The newspaper or professional journal named for each case's two print ads, one count per paper per case, however the filer spelled it.

Additional steps it used

Job search websites

3 cases
Local or ethnic newspapers

2 cases
Radio or TV ads

2 cases
Campus placement offices

1 cases
Trade or professional organizations

1 cases

How this is counted

The steps a professional job needs beyond the job order and the ads, by the number of cases that name each.

How long before filing it began

Under 30 days

0.0%
30 to 59 days

2.7%
60 to 89 days

39%
90 to 119 days

21%
120 to 149 days

8.0%
150 to 180 days

24%
Over 180 days

5.3%

How this is counted

Days from the first recruitment step to the filing. 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e) puts the job order and ads 30 to 180 days before filing.

Where every PERM employer recruits

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.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27

United States
409,670 jobs
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Mission
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Atlanta
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Glendale
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Brooklyn
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Grafton

$40k$60k$80k$100k

middle half of pay (BLS)
median
10th to 90th percentile
DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
median PERM offer

Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area	BLS median	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
United States	$61,010
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX	$47,170	$36,379	$43,347	$50,315	$57,283
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$58,970	$42,723	$51,542	$60,382	$69,202
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$73,830	$49,712	$62,109	$74,506	$86,902
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$77,990	$55,016	$67,309	$79,602	$91,894
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	$62,930	$48,776	$59,446	$70,117	$80,787

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

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, 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.

DOL wage levels by wage year, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$36,379	$43,347	$50,315	$57,283
2025-26	$34,507	$42,078	$49,629	$57,200
2024-25	$31,346	$38,334	$45,323	$52,312
2023-24	$31,720	$38,064	$44,408	$50,752
2022-23	$31,616	$37,835	$44,054	$50,274
2021-22	$31,450	$37,731	$44,034	$50,315

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

What the job is

Install or repair heating, central air conditioning, HVAC, or refrigeration systems, including oil burners, hot-air furnaces, and heating stoves.

Preparation: Medium Preparation Needed; O*NET Job Zone 3
DOL's education basis: High school diploma or equivalent; Wage year 2026-27
Jobs, 2025 to 2035: +10.9%; About 40,600 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: Postsecondary nondegree award; BLS

Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.

The work, most important first

Discuss heating or cooling system malfunctions with users to isolate problems or to verify that repairs corrected malfunctions.
Test electrical circuits or components for continuity, using electrical test equipment.
Repair or replace defective equipment, components, or wiring.
Lay out and connect electrical wiring between controls and equipment, according to wiring diagrams, using electrician's hand tools.
Schedule work with customers and initiate work orders, house requisitions, and orders from stock.
Estimate, order, pick up, deliver, and install materials and supplies needed to maintain equipment in good working condition.

Titles people use for it

HVAC Mechanic (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Mechanic), HVAC Tech (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Technician), Refrigeration Mechanic, Refrigeration Technician (Refrigeration Tech), AC Mechanic (Air Conditioner Mechanic), AC Tech (Air Conditioning Technician), HVAC Control Tech (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Control Technician), HVAC Installer (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Installer).

Related jobs: Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters, Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door, Home Appliance Repairers, Boilermakers, Solar Thermal Installers and Technicians.

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 360 of 1,410 by volume: 359 filed at least as many filings, and 1,050 filed no more.

Just above: Video Game Designers 77 filings
Just below: Advertising and Promotions Managers 77 filings

Other installation, maintenance and repair 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.

The same job on H-1B

4 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $78,031 a year; the middle half ran $70,065 to $86,694. 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 49-9021.00. 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 77 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 Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 77 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 HVAC Services. 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