Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 11-3061.00, #180 of 1,410 by filings
Purchasing Managers
- Biggest sponsor
- RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE, LLC · 3% of its filings
- Busiest state
- CA · 24% of its filings
- Major group
- Management · SOC 11
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
This rate is level with the field
Over 233 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Why
The 95% interval runs up to a 6.1% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.
Median wage
$127,046
all PERM $103,272
Filings
243
#180 of 1,410
Approval
97.0%
field 96.8%
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
$127,046above 83%
Approval rate
97.0%ahead of 54%
Median days to decision
482 daysahead of 33%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
- 5th to 95th
- 25th to 75th
- Median
- 10th and 90th
FY2025
$119,456 median · 114 certified cases
FY2026
$130,542 median · 94 certified cases
- 10th
- $84,406
- +15.0% since FY2025
- Median
- $130,542
- +9.3% since FY2025
- 90th
- $175,612
- +0.2% since FY2025
- 95th
- $185,500
- -3.9% since FY2025
Each row is that fiscal year's certified filings, counted on their own. A percentile is over the year, so a year with far fewer cases behind it is a thinner measurement than one with more.
| Fiscal year | Cases | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 114 | $65,339 | $73,370 | $94,827 | $119,456 | $154,694 | $175,217 | $193,077 |
| FY2026 | 94 | $74,284 | $84,406 | $106,357 | $130,542 | $164,299 | $175,612 | $185,500 |
A median answers whether pay moved. 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
- RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE, LLC 8 filings
- Zoox Inc. 5 filings
- LUCID USA, INC. 3 filings
- Seoyon E-Hwa Manufacturing Auburn, Inc. (Formerly known as Kwangsung America Cor 3 filings
- Soundavo, Inc. 3 filings
- 365 TRUCK REPAIR LTD 2 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 24 of 243 filings, 10% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP 36 filings · 100.0% approved
- Corporate Immigration Partners, P.C. 15 filings
- Park and Associates PC 9 filings
- Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP 8 filings
- Foster LLP 6 filings
- EY Law LLP 5 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 79 of 243 filings, 33% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 59
- Florida 21
- Texas 21
- Alabama 20
- Michigan 16
- Illinois 13
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 150 of 243 filings.
Where the work is
- Irvine, CA 9
- Foster City, CA 5
- Houston, TX 5
- Miami, FL 5
- New York, NY 4
- Newark, CA 4
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 32 of 243 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
- 14 cases
Detroit Free Press
- 13 cases
San Francisco Chronicle
- 10 cases
The Orange County Register
- 9 cases
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- 9 cases
Miami Herald
- 8 cases
Los Angeles Times
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
- 204 cases
Job search websites
- 180 cases
Local or ethnic newspapers
- 92 cases
Radio or TV ads
- 69 cases
The employer's website
- 46 cases
Employee referral programs
- 34 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
- 0.9%
30 to 59 days
- 24%
60 to 89 days
- 26%
90 to 119 days
- 19%
120 to 149 days
- 30%
150 to 180 days
- 0.4%
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 States84,320 jobs
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CAIrvine
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CAFoster City, Newark
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TXHouston
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FLMiami
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJNew York
- 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 | $148,080 | ||||
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $156,400 | $107,598 | $134,576 | $161,574 | $188,552 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $170,440 | $116,438 | $147,451 | $178,443 | $209,456 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $139,050 | $97,094 | $122,637 | $148,200 | $173,742 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $131,400 | $82,971 | $110,947 | $138,923 | $166,899 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $171,810 | $125,840 | $157,498 | $189,176 | $220,834 |
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 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 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.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $107,598 | $134,576 | $161,574 | $188,552 |
| 2025-26 | $96,075 | $123,365 | $150,654 | $177,944 |
| 2024-25 | $99,882 | $126,298 | $152,714 | $179,130 |
| 2023-24 | $96,824 | $123,094 | $149,365 | $175,635 |
| 2022-23 | $87,069 | $113,547 | $140,046 | $166,525 |
| 2021-22 | $96,658 | $123,240 | $149,822 | $176,405 |
What the job is
Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Includes wholesale or retail trade merchandising managers and procurement managers.
- 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
- +4.0%
- About 6,400 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- 5 years or more of related work (BLS)
The work, most important first
- Develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures.
- Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.
- Prepare bid awards requiring board approval.
- Direct and coordinate activities of personnel engaged in buying, selling, and distributing materials, equipment, machinery, and supplies.
- Review purchase order claims and contracts for conformance to company policy.
- Review, evaluate, and approve specifications for issuing and awarding bids.
The education workers in it report
- 5%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 16%
Post-Secondary Certificate
- 5%
Some College Courses
- 11%
Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
- 53%
Bachelor's Degree
- 11%
Master's Degree
Titles people use for it
Materials Manager, Procurement Manager, Purchasing Director, Purchasing Manager, Category Purchasing Manager, Commodity Manager, Materials Director, Procurement Director.
Related jobs: Procurement Clerks, Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products, Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products, Logistics Analysts, Logisticians, Supply Chain Managers.
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 180 of 1,410 by volume: 179 filed at least as many filings, and 1,230 filed no more.
- Just above
- Validation Engineer 244 filings
- Just below
- ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT 238 filings
Other management 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.
- #170 Financial Managers 274 filings · 13 denied
- #197 Sales Manager 219 filings · 13 denied
- #162 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers 294 filings · 26 denied
- #198 Construction Managers 219 filings · 20 denied
- #202 Chief Executives 215 filings · 23 denied
- #157 Architectural and Engineering Managers 308 filings · 8 denied
The same job on H-1B
1,813 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $137,404 a year; the middle half ran $112,546 to $165,000. 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 11-3061.00. 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 243 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 Purchasing Managers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 243 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 RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE, 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