Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 17-2144, #628 of 1,410 by filings
Mechanical Engineers, R&D
- Biggest sponsor
- WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY · 30% of its filings
- Busiest state
- KS · 30% 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.
Too few cases for a rate
19 decided filings: too few for an approval rate.
Why
Across every PERM case DOL decided in this window, 3.20% were denied. At that rate a file this size comes back clean most of the time whatever the occupation did, so a percentage would be a fact about how few cases there are. Telling a clean record apart from the field takes about 117 decided cases.
Median wage
$69,423
all PERM $103,272
Filings
20
#628 of 1,410
Approval
Not shown
withheld: 19 decided
Median days
482
5 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.
Median offered wage
$69,423median of 20 filings, too few decided to rank
Approval rate
not shownunder 30 decided
Median days to decision
482 daysmiddle of 19 decided, too few to rank
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
- WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY 6 filings
- Fermi Research Alliance, LLC 4 filings
- Southwest Research Institute 2 filings
- ALLIANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY LLC 1 filings
- CLEMSON UNIVERSITY 1 filings
- Leland Stanford Jr. Univ/SLAC National Accelerator Lab 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 15 of 20 filings, 75% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Bordeau & Noulles LLC 6 filings
- Greenberg Traurig LLP 2 filings
- Ware | Immigration 2 filings
- Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP 2 filings
- Maney Gordon Zeller, PA 1 filings
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak, Stewart, P.C. 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 14 of 20 filings, 70% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Kansas 6
- Illinois 4
- Texas 3
- California 2
- Colorado 1
- Kentucky 1
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 17 of 20 filings.
Where the work is
- Wichita, KS 6
- Batavia, IL 4
- San Antonio, TX 2
- Arlington, TX 1
- Clemson, SC 1
- Davis, CA 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 15 of 20 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
Newspapers it advertised in
- 4 cases
Chicago Sun-Times
- 4 cases
The Wichita Eagle
- 1 cases
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- 1 cases
The Greenville News
- 1 cases
Lexington Herald-Leader
- 1 cases
The Register-Guard
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
- 11 cases
Job search websites
- 7 cases
Campus placement offices
- 7 cases
The employer's website
- 6 cases
Local or ethnic newspapers
- 5 cases
Radio or TV ads
- 5 cases
Trade or professional organizations
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
- 0.0%
Under 30 days
- 0.0%
30 to 59 days
- 53%
60 to 89 days
- 33%
90 to 119 days
- 6.7%
120 to 149 days
- 6.7%
150 to 180 days
- 0.0%
Over 180 days
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.
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 11
- China 4
- Malaysia 4
- Spain 4
- Canada 2
- Iran 2
Worker's education
- Master's 24
- Doctorate 17
- Bachelor's 8
Visa held when filed
- H-1B 46
- J-1 1
Schools
- WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY 12
- OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY 3
- DREXEL UNIVERSITY 2
- UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA 2
- UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA 2
- BAUMAN MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY 1
Fields of study
- MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 25
- AEROSPACE ENGINEERING 11
- COMPUTATIONAL ENGINEERNG 2
- MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING 2
- CIVIL ENGINEERING 1
- ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING 1
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.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 628 of 1,410 by volume: 627 filed at least as many filings, and 782 filed no more.
- Just above
- Pharmacy Technicians 20 filings
- Just below
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Langua 20 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.
- #624 Aerospace Engineers 21 filings · 2 denied
- #632 Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers 20 filings · 2 denied
- #622 Surveyors 21 filings · none denied
- #612 Environmental Engineers 22 filings · none denied
- #649 Surveying and Mapping Technicians 19 filings · 1 denied
- #601 Nanosystems Engineers 22 filings · none denied
The same job on H-1B
1,227 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $78,417 a year; the middle half ran $61,400 to $97,018. 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 17-2144. 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 20 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 Mechanical Engineers, R&D. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 20 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 WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY. 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