Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 53-2011, #337 of 1,410 by filings
SOC 53-2011
- Biggest sponsor
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University · 55% of its filings
- Busiest state
- FL · 56% of its filings
- Major group
- Transportation and material moving · SOC 53
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
DOL's job-title cell is unusable on these rows, so the code is the only name they have.
Median wage
$60,258
all PERM $103,272
Filings
84
#337 of 1,410
Approval
91.6%
field 96.8%
Median days
446
31 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.
Median offered wage
$60,258above 43%
Approval rate
91.6%ahead of 19%
Median days to decision
446 daysahead of 70%
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
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 46 filings · 100.0% approved
- HYANNIS AIR SERVICE, INC. 30 filings · 86.7% approved
- Air Wisconsin Airlines LLC 2 filings
- ATI JET INC 1 filings
- Craft Charter, LLC 1 filings
- Fenix Air Charter LLC 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 81 of 84 filings, 96% of the total.
Firms filing it
- SilzerLaw Chartered 46 filings · 100.0% approved
- Law Office of Shayne Epstein 30 filings · 86.7% approved
- Ogletree Deakins Law Firm 2 filings
- Benme Corp 1 filings
- Harry D. Polatsek, P.A. 1 filings
- Karen M. Ocasio, Law Office 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 81 of 84 filings, 96% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Florida 47
- Massachusetts 30
- Illinois 1
- North Carolina 1
- New York 1
- Oklahoma 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 81 of 84 filings.
Where the work is
- Daytona Beach, FL 46
- Hyannis, MA 30
- Chicago, IL 1
- El Paso, TX 1
- Elmira, NY 1
- Milwaukee, WI 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 80 of 84 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
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
- Brazil 97
- South Africa 25
- Colombia 24
- Venezuela 21
- Ecuador 13
- Argentina 11
Worker's education
- None 300
- Bachelor's 11
- Associate's 3
- High School 3
- Master's 2
- Other 2
Visa held when filed
- F-1 34
- B-2 8
- F-2 5
- L-1 5
- NOT IN USA 4
- E-3 3
Schools
- HIROSAKI UNIVERSITY 2
- CALIFORNIA AVIATION SERVICES, INC. 1
- CENTURY FLIGHT ACADEMY 1
- EMBRY RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY 1
- FLIGHT SAFETY ACADEMY 1
- FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 1
Fields of study
- BS IN AGRICULTURE 2
- ENGINEERING 2
- AERONAUTICAL SCIENCE 1
- AERONAUTICAL TECHNOLOGY 1
- AERONAUTICS 1
- AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT LICENSE 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.
- United States103,560 jobs
- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FLDaytona Beach
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-INChicago
- El Paso, TXEl Paso
- Elmira, NYElmira
- Milwaukee-Waukesha, WIMilwaukee
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $232,140 | ||||
| Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL | — | $141,390 | $199,060 | $256,730 | $314,400 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $293,490 | $170,460 | $243,173 | $315,887 | $388,600 |
| El Paso, TX | — | $131,300 | $203,147 | $274,993 | $346,840 |
| Elmira, NY | — | $139,310 | $218,387 | $297,463 | $376,540 |
| Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | — | $139,960 | $213,933 | $287,907 | $361,880 |
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
DOL's levels for this job in Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL, 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.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $141,390 | $199,060 | $256,730 | $314,400 |
| 2025-26 | $145,220 | $199,907 | $254,593 | $309,280 |
| 2024-25 | $137,440 | $192,090 | $246,740 | $301,390 |
| 2023-24 | $139,560 | $187,300 | $235,040 | $282,780 |
| 2022-23 | $157,430 | $204,323 | $251,217 | $298,110 |
| 2021-22 | $131,740 | $180,737 | $229,733 | $278,730 |
What the job is
Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft, usually on scheduled air carrier routes, for the transport of passengers and cargo. Requires Federal Air Transport certificate and rating for specific aircraft type used. Includes regional, national, and international airline pilots and flight instructors of airline pilots.
- 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
- +8.3%
- About 11,200 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- Less than 5 years of related work (BLS)
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
- Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
- Work as part of a flight team with other crew members, especially during takeoffs and landings.
- Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
- Inspect aircraft for defects and malfunctions, according to pre-flight checklists.
- Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
The education workers in it report
- 8%
Less than a High School Diploma
- 18%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 5%
Post-Secondary Certificate
- 6%
Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
- 61%
Bachelor's Degree
Titles people use for it
Airline Captain, Captain, First Officer (FO), Pilot, Airbus Captain, Airline Pilot, Check Airman, Co-Pilot.
Related jobs: Commercial Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, Airfield Operations Specialists, Aircraft Service Attendants, Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels, Aircraft Mechanics and Service 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 337 of 1,410 by volume: 336 filed at least as many filings, and 1,073 filed no more.
- Just above
- Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters 84 filings
- Just below
- Computer Systems Analysts, Non R&D 83 filings
Other transportation and material moving 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.
- #333 Light Truck Drivers 85 filings · 16 denied
- #256 Car Detailer 141 filings · none denied
- #441 Commercial Pilots 56 filings · 12 denied
- #463 Driver/Sales Workers 49 filings · 9 denied
- #205 Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 210 filings · 3 denied
- #473 First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators 47 filings · 1 denied
The same job on H-1B
1,416 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $185,955 a year; the middle half ran $108,254 to $209,040. 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 53-2011. 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 84 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 SOC 53-2011. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 84 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 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 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