Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 27-1014, #322 of 1,410 by filings

Multimedia Artists and Animators

2,685 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: GOOGLE LLC · 32% of its filings
Busiest state: CA · 59% of its filings
Major group: Arts, design, media and sport · SOC 27

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

Why

The 95% interval runs up to a 7.6% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.

Median wage

$83,300

all PERM $103,272

Filings

#322 of 1,410

Approval

97.8%

field 96.8%

Median days

364

113 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

$83,300above 60%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

97.8%ahead of 64%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

364 daysahead of 99%

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 30 filings · 100.0% approved
ACTIVISION PUBLISHING INC. 10 filings
AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC 10 filings
META PLATFORMS, INC. 4 filings
APPLE INC. 3 filings
BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT INC. 3 filings

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 60 of 93 filings, 65% of the total.

Firms filing it

Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 43 filings · 100.0% approved
William B. Bennett Associates, LTD 12 filings
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Loewy, LLP 7 filings
Erickson Immigration Group 3 filings
Ogletree Deakins 3 filings
Farrell LLP 2 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 70 of 93 filings, 75% of the total.

Where the jobs are

California 55
Washington 17
New York 11
Oregon 2
Texas 2
Maryland 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 88 of 93 filings.

Where the work is

Seattle, WA 14
Mountain View, CA 13
New York, NY 11
San Francisco, CA 8
Cupertino, CA 5
Woodland Hills, CA 5

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 56 of 93 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 534
India 285
South Korea 271
Canada 231
Taiwan 103
United Kingdom 102

Worker's education

Master's 1,095
Bachelor's 831
None 164
Other 80
Associate's 28
Doctorate 4

Visa held when filed

H-1B 1,372
O-1 187
F-1 169
L-1 152
TN 108
E-3 18

Schools

ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY 190
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 100
SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN 68
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS 54
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 51
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 44

Fields of study

GRAPHIC DESIGN 137
DESIGN 103
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION 89
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 83
ANIMATION AND VISUAL EFFECTS 79
INTERACTION DESIGN 42

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
19,970 jobs
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Mountain View, Cupertino
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Seattle
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
New York
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
San Francisco

$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	$102,030
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$156,950	$105,477	$133,370	$161,262	$189,155
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$134,120	$80,267	$111,862	$143,478	$175,074
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$96,760	$67,122	$88,109	$109,096	$130,083
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$136,770	$96,429	$121,077	$145,704	$170,352

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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 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, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$105,477	$133,370	$161,262	$189,155
2025-26	$108,243	$137,904	$167,544	$197,205
2024-25	$101,317	$126,443	$151,590	$176,717
2023-24	$89,419	$114,296	$139,173	$164,050
2022-23	$64,168	$88,546	$112,923	$137,301
2021-22	$61,194	$80,850	$100,506	$120,162

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

What the job is

Create special effects or animations using film, video, computers, or other electronic tools and media for use in products, such as computer games, movies, music videos, and commercials.

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: -0.3%; About 4,200 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree; BLS

The work, most important first

Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment.
Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television.
Participate in design and production of multimedia campaigns, handling budgeting and scheduling, and assisting with such responsibilities as production coordination, background design, and progress tracking.
Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs.
Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion.
Apply story development, directing, cinematography, and editing to animation to create storyboards that show the flow of the animation and map out key scenes and characters.

The education workers in it report

High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)

5%

Titles people use for it

3D Artist (Three-Dimensional Artist), Animator, Artist, Graphic Artist, 3D Animator (Three-Dimensional Animator), Digital Artist, Motion Graphics Artist, Multimedia Producer.

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 322 of 1,410 by volume: 321 filed at least as many filings, and 1,088 filed no more.

Just above: Physical Therapist Assistants 93 filings
Just below: Paralegals and Legal Assistants 93 filings

Other arts, design, media and sport 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

2,685 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $105,000 a year; the middle half ran $78,000 to $139,214. 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 27-1014. 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 93 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 Multimedia Artists and Animators. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 93 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