Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 47-2073.00, #489 of 1,410 by filings
Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
- Biggest sponsor
- CORE TECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION · 12% of its filings
- Busiest state
- GA · 23% of its filings
- Major group
- Construction and extraction · SOC 47
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Median wage
$43,600
all PERM $103,272
Filings
43
#489 of 1,410
Approval
78.0%
field 96.8%
Median days
491
14 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
$43,600above 26%
Approval rate
78.0%ahead of 4%
Median days to decision
491 daysahead of 6%
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
- CORE TECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION 5 filings
- LEAD FOOT MULCHING & GRADING 5 filings
- Lovin Contracting Company, Inc. 4 filings
- Sugar Mountain Resort, Inc. 4 filings
- All Concrete Chicago Inc 3 filings
- Jerdon Enterprise, L.P. 3 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 24 of 43 filings, 56% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Law Office of Samuel E Thomas Llc 5 filings
- Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC 4 filings
- Labor Consultants International 4 filings
- Kurczaba & Brozek Law Offices, LLC 3 filings
- Terra Labor Consulting Group, LLC 3 filings
- BAUMANN, XU and BLACK, LLC 2 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 21 of 43 filings, 49% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Georgia 10
- Guam 7
- North Carolina 4
- Florida 3
- Illinois 3
- Texas 3
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 30 of 43 filings.
Where the work is
- Tamuning, GU 7
- Social Circle, GA 5
- Macon, GA 4
- Sugar Mountain, NC 4
- Bridgeview, IL 3
- Stafford, TX 3
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 26 of 43 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
- 9 cases
Guam Daily Post
- 5 cases
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- 5 cases
The Walton Tribune
- 4 cases
Asheville Citizen Times
- 3 cases
Chicago Sun-Times
- 3 cases
Houston Chronicle
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.
How long before filing it began
- 12%
Under 30 days
- 2.4%
30 to 59 days
- 17%
60 to 89 days
- 24%
90 to 119 days
- 2.4%
120 to 149 days
- 43%
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.
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 States478,090 jobs
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GASocial Circle
- Macon-Bibb County, GAMacon
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-INBridgeview
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TXStafford
- 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 | $59,850 | ||||
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $49,430 | $42,058 | $47,050 | $52,062 | $57,054 |
| Macon-Bibb County, GA | $46,300 | $40,123 | $44,429 | $48,755 | $53,061 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $103,100 | $64,542 | $80,371 | $96,221 | $112,050 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $51,040 | $42,786 | $49,067 | $55,349 | $61,630 |
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 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA, 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 | $42,058 | $47,050 | $52,062 | $57,054 |
| 2025-26 | $39,250 | $44,658 | $50,066 | $55,474 |
| 2024-25 | $37,606 | $43,077 | $48,568 | $54,038 |
| 2023-24 | $35,818 | $41,600 | $47,362 | $53,144 |
| 2022-23 | $33,238 | $39,104 | $44,949 | $50,814 |
| 2021-22 | $32,802 | $37,294 | $41,787 | $46,280 |
What the job is
Operate one or several types of power construction equipment, such as motor graders, bulldozers, scrapers, compressors, pumps, derricks, shovels, tractors, or front-end loaders to excavate, move, and grade earth, erect structures, or pour concrete or other hard surface pavement. May repair and maintain equipment in addition to other duties.
- Preparation
- Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 1-2
- DOL's education basis
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Wage year 2026-27
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +4.6%
- About 39,200 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- High school diploma or equivalent
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Learn and follow safety regulations.
- Take actions to avoid potential hazards or obstructions, such as utility lines, other equipment, other workers, or falling objects.
- Start engines, move throttles, switches, or levers, or depress pedals to operate machines, such as bulldozers, trench excavators, road graders, or backhoes.
- Coordinate machine actions with other activities, positioning or moving loads in response to hand or audio signals from crew members.
- Align machines, cutterheads, or depth gauge makers with reference stakes and guidelines or ground or position equipment, following hand signals of other workers.
- Locate underground services, such as pipes or wires, prior to beginning work.
Titles people use for it
Equipment Operator (EO), Heavy Equipment Operator (HEO), Machine Operator, Operating Engineer, Back Hoe Operator, Engineering Equipment Operator, Forklift Operator, Hot Mix Asphalt Operator.
Related jobs: Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining, Hoist and Winch Operators, Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines, Continuous Mining Machine Operators, Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators, Crane and Tower Operators.
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 489 of 1,410 by volume: 488 filed at least as many filings, and 921 filed no more.
- Just above
- Helpers--Electricians 43 filings
- Just below
- Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products 43 filings
Other construction and extraction 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.
- #488 Helpers--Electricians 43 filings · 4 denied
- #486 Construction Carpenters 44 filings · 11 denied
- #495 Highway Maintenance Workers 42 filings · none denied
- #479 Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons 45 filings · none denied
- #521 Brickmasons and Blockmasons 35 filings · 15 denied
- #541 ROOFER 30 filings · 8 denied
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 47-2073.00. 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 43 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 Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 43 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 CORE TECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION. 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