All occupations · #343 of 1,410 by volume
Software Developers, R&D
SOC 15-1296, in the computer and mathematical major group. 82 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 75 certified and 1 denied.
This rate is level with the field
Computed over 76 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 7.1% 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
$105,870
all PERM $103,272
Filings
82
#343 of 1,410
Approval
98.7%
field 96.8%
Median days
494
17 slower than the field
Median offered wage
$105,870above 72%
Approval rate
98.7%ahead of 79%
Median days to decision
494 daysahead of 4%
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
- Educational Testing Service 4 filings
- City of Hope National Medical Center 3 filings
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 3 filings
- Northwestern University 3 filings
- Providence Health & Services 3 filings
- The University of Chicago 3 filings
The employers with the most applications under this code. 19 of 82 filings, 23% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Kirton McConkie 7 filings
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP 5 filings
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 5 filings
- Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP 5 filings
- Kempster, Corcoran, Quiceno & Lenz-Calvo Ltd. 4 filings
- BERRY APPLEMAN & LEIDEN LLP 3 filings
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 29 of 82 filings, 35% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Illinois 11
- California 9
- New York 7
- Utah 7
- Minnesota 6
- Michigan 5
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 45 of 82 filings.
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 343 of 1,410 by volume: 342 filed at least as many filings, and 1,067 filed no more.
- Just above
- Art Directors 82 filings
- Just below
- Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers 82 filings
Other computer and mathematical 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.
- #338 Computer Systems Analysts, Non R&D 83 filings · none denied
- #349 Database Administrators 81 filings · 5 denied
- #330 Computer Network Architects 87 filings · 10 denied
- #359 Video Game Designers 77 filings · 3 denied
- #324 Computer Programmers 92 filings · 14 denied
- #314 Computer and Information Research Scientists 97 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