All occupations · #435 of 1,410 by volume
Sewing Machine Operators
SOC 51-6031.00, in the production major group. 58 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 57 certified and 1 denied.
This rate is level with the field
Computed over 58 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 9.1% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records, so this record can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Median wage
$17,722
all PERM $103,272
Filings
58
#435 of 1,410
Approval
98.3%
field 96.8%
Median days
496
19 slower than the field
Median offered wage
$17,722above 0.0%
Approval rate
98.3%ahead of 72%
Median days to decision
496 daysahead of 2%
Who files this job
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.
Sponsors filing it
- RUNNERS DIVERSIFIED INCORPORATED 29 filings
- SnD MANUFRACTURING, LTD 20 filings
- Midwest Garment Inc. 3 filings
- Chardan, Ltd. 2 filings
- Duggal Visual Solutions, Inc. 1 filings
- GIL SEWING CORPORATION 1 filings
The employers with the most applications under this code. 56 of 58 filings, 97% of the total.
Firms filing it
- CAO AND ASSOCIATES, P.C. 20 filings
- THE JI LAW FIRM 2 filings
- Webber Arredondo Oja, LLC. 2 filings
- Fay Grafton Nunez 1 filings
- MELTSER LAW GROUP 1 filings
- Webber Law Firm 2.0, LLC 1 filings
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 27 of 58 filings, 47% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Georgia 31
- Texas 20
- Wisconsin 3
- Florida 1
- Illinois 1
- North Carolina 1
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 57 of 58 filings.
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 435 of 1,410 by volume: 434 filed at least as many filings, and 975 filed no more.
- Just above
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health 58 filings
- Just below
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers 58 filings
Other production roles
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.
- #442 RECYCLING AND RECLAMATION WORKER 56 filings · 2 denied
- #426 Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers 59 filings · 4 denied
- #417 Bakers 62 filings · 17 denied
- #408 Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers 63 filings · 17 denied
- #394 Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 67 filings · none denied
- #491 FirstLine Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers 43 filings · 7 denied
Reading the wage
This 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.
What these numbers don't say
- The code is the identity
- 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 every wage 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. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover
DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.
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.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest