Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 29-1125.00, #796 of 1,410 by filings
Recreational Therapists
- Biggest sponsor
- Department of State Hospitals, Coalinga · 36% of its filings
- Busiest state
- CA · 55% of its filings
- Major group
- Healthcare practitioners · SOC 29
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
10 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
$47,268
all PERM $103,272
Filings
11
#796 of 1,410
Approval
Not shown
withheld: 10 decided
Median days
487
10 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
$47,268median of 11 filings, too few decided to rank
Approval rate
not shownunder 30 decided
Median days to decision
487 daysmiddle of 10 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
- Department of State Hospitals, Coalinga 4 filings
- California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 1 filings
- Eagles Adult Day Inc. 1 filings
- Metro Man II 1 filings
- Music To Grow On, Music Therapy Services, Inc. 1 filings
- NORTH MISSISSIPPI REGIONAL CENTER 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 9 of 11 filings, 82% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP 4 filings
- BARRY J WALKER, ATTY P A 1 filings
- Immigration Legal Office 1 filings
- Kanter and Romo Immigration Law Office 1 filings
- Law Offices of Roxana Amiri 1 filings
- Richards and Jurusik 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 9 of 11 filings, 82% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 6
- New York 2
- Michigan 1
- Mississippi 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 4 states cover 10 of 11 filings.
Where the work is
- Coalinga, CA 4
- Bayside, NY 1
- Laguna Niguel, CA 1
- Oxford, MS 1
- Riverview, MI 1
- San Luis Obispo, CA 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 9 of 11 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
The Fresno Bee
- 2 cases
New York Post
- 1 cases
DAILY JOURNAL WEEKEND EDITION
- 1 cases
Detroit Free Press
- 1 cases
Los Angeles Times
- 1 cases
The Sacramento Bee
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
Local or ethnic newspapers
- 6 cases
Radio or TV ads
- 4 cases
Trade or professional organizations
- 3 cases
The employer's website
- 1 cases
Campus placement offices
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
- 18%
60 to 89 days
- 9.1%
90 to 119 days
- 18%
120 to 149 days
- 55%
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 States14,930 jobs
- Fresno, CACoalinga
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CALaguna Niguel
- Upper East Mississippi nonmetropolitan areaOxford
- Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MIRiverview
- San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CASan Luis Obispo
- 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 | $61,960 | ||||
| Fresno, CA | $98,160 | $86,882 | $92,165 | $97,427 | $102,710 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $91,740 | $66,622 | $78,146 | $89,690 | $101,213 |
| Upper East Mississippi nonmetropolitan area | — | $30,784 | $39,520 | $48,235 | $56,971 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $62,600 | $45,739 | $53,518 | $61,298 | $69,077 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA | — | $93,829 | $99,278 | $104,728 | $110,178 |
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 Fresno, 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 | $86,882 | $92,165 | $97,427 | $102,710 |
| 2025-26 | $81,037 | $86,549 | $92,061 | $97,573 |
| 2024-25 | $80,642 | $83,907 | $87,152 | $90,418 |
| 2023-24 | $73,424 | $78,562 | $83,720 | $88,858 |
| 2022-23 | $70,200 | $74,339 | $78,478 | $82,618 |
| 2021-22 | $72,488 | $78,582 | $84,677 | $90,771 |
What the job is
Plan, direct, or coordinate medically-approved recreation programs for patients in hospitals, nursing homes, or other institutions. Activities include sports, trips, dramatics, social activities, and crafts. May assess a patient condition and recommend appropriate recreational activity.
- 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
- +4.8%
- About 1,400 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Instruct patient in activities and techniques, such as sports, dance, music, art, or relaxation techniques, designed to meet their specific physical or psychological needs.
- Conduct therapy sessions to improve patients' mental and physical well-being.
- Plan, organize, direct, and participate in treatment programs and activities to facilitate patients' rehabilitation, help them integrate into the community, and prevent further medical problems.
- Observe, analyze, and record patients' participation, reactions, and progress during treatment sessions, modifying treatment programs as needed.
- Develop treatment plan to meet needs of patient, based on needs assessment, patient interests, and objectives of therapy.
- Obtain information from medical records, medical staff, family members and the patients, themselves, to assess patients' capabilities, needs and interests.
The education workers in it report
- 92%
Bachelor's Degree
- 5%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate
Titles people use for it
Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS), Recreation Therapist, Recreational Therapist, Rehabilitation Therapist, Activities Coordinator, General Activities Therapist, Recreational Therapy Program Coordinator, Therapeutic Recreation Specialist.
Related jobs: Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychiatric Technicians, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, Occupational Therapy Aides, Physical Therapists.
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 796 of 1,410 by volume: 795 filed at least as many filings, and 614 filed no more.
- Just above
- Information Security Engineers 11 filings
- Just below
- Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers 11 filings
Other healthcare practitioners 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.
- #798 Family and General Practitioners 11 filings · 1 denied
- #799 Dentists, All Other Specialists 11 filings · 2 denied
- #782 Urologists 11 filings · none denied
- #778 Diagnostic Medical Sonographers 11 filings · none denied
- #776 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians 11 filings · none denied
- #830 Registered Nurses 9 filings · 4 denied
The same job on H-1B
119 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $55,000 a year; the middle half ran $43,570 to $71,168. 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 29-1125.00. 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 11 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 Recreational Therapists. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 11 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 Department of State Hospitals, Coalinga. 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