Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 13-1161, #97 of 1,410 by filings

Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists

32,065 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: GOOGLE LLC · 7% of its filings
Busiest state: CA · 29% of its filings
Major group: Business and financial · SOC 13

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

Median wage

$62,000

all PERM $103,272

Filings

616

#97 of 1,410

Approval

94.9%

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.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$62,000above 45%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

94.9%ahead of 37%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

390 daysahead of 80%

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

GOOGLE LLC 42 filings · 100.0% approved
META PLATFORMS, INC. 17 filings
MICROSOFT CORPORATION 13 filings
COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP, INC. 6 filings
CUMMINS INC. 6 filings
LinkedIn Corporation 5 filings

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 89 of 616 filings, 14% of the total.

Firms filing it

Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 72 filings · 98.6% approved
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Loewy, LLP 52 filings · 100.0% approved
Ogletree Deakins 12 filings
Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak Stewart, P. C. 8 filings
The Ram Law Firm P.A. 8 filings
Esani Momin P.C. 7 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 159 of 616 filings, 26% of the total.

Where the jobs are

California 179
New York 109
Florida 80
Texas 47
New Jersey 39
Washington 26

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 480 of 616 filings.

Where the work is

New York, NY 85
Miami, FL 19
Los Angeles, CA 17
San Francisco, CA 15
Houston, TX 13
Menlo Park, CA 13

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 162 of 616 filings.

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

China 1,325
South Korea 1,114
India 1,028
Taiwan 353
Japan 311
Brazil 292

Worker's education

Master's 3,536
Bachelor's 3,325
None 412
High School 111
Associate's 109
Other 85

Visa held when filed

H-1B 3,476
F-1 1,250
L-1 578
E-2 307
NOT IN USA 207
B-2 190

Schools

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 103
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 96
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 79
HULT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL 69
DUKE UNIVERSITY 56
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 53

Fields of study

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 2,099
ECONOMICS 394
MARKETING 386
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 112
MANAGEMENT 110
FINANCE 70

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
899,580 jobs
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
New York
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
San Francisco, Menlo Park
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
Miami
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Los Angeles
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Houston

$50k$100k$150k$200k

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	$78,760
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$100,520	$64,834	$85,467	$106,122	$126,755
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$123,250	$69,576	$100,027	$130,458	$160,909
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	$78,990	$46,613	$64,251	$81,890	$99,528
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$82,990	$55,370	$75,546	$95,722	$115,898
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$67,370	$37,794	$55,619	$73,466	$91,291

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 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, 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, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$64,834	$85,467	$106,122	$126,755
2025-26	$61,797	$82,139	$102,482	$122,824
2024-25	$60,174	$79,789	$99,424	$119,038
2023-24	$56,784	$76,877	$96,949	$117,042
2022-23	$54,475	$72,925	$91,395	$109,845
2021-22	$50,066	$69,514	$88,941	$108,389

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

What the job is

Research conditions in local, regional, national, or online markets. Gather information to determine potential sales of a product or service, or plan a marketing or advertising campaign. May gather information on competitors, prices, sales, and methods of marketing and distribution. May employ search marketing tactics, analyze web metrics, and develop recommendations to increase search engine ranking and visibility to target markets.

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: +7.0%; About 82,000 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree; BLS

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

The work, most important first

Prepare reports of findings, illustrating data graphically and translating complex findings into written text.
Seek and provide information to help companies determine their position in the marketplace.
Conduct research on consumer opinions and marketing strategies, collaborating with marketing professionals, statisticians, pollsters, and other professionals.
Collect and analyze data on customer demographics, preferences, needs, and buying habits to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand.
Devise and evaluate methods and procedures for collecting data, such as surveys, opinion polls, or questionnaires, or arrange to obtain existing data.
Gather data on competitors and analyze their prices, sales, and method of marketing and distribution.

Titles people use for it

Market Analyst, Market Research Analyst, Market Research Consultant, Market Researcher, Business Development Specialist, Communications Consultant, Communications Specialist, Content Strategist.

O*NET also describes Search Marketing Strategists under this SOC code.

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 97 of 1,410 by volume: 96 filed at least as many filings, and 1,313 filed no more.

Just above: CAREGIVER 619 filings
Just below: Civil Engineers 594 filings

Other business and financial 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

32,065 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $83,200 a year; the middle half ran $63,398 to $120,162. 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 13-1161. 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 616 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 Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 616 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 GOOGLE LLC. 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