Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 15-1296, #343 of 1,410 by filings
Software Developers, R&D
- Biggest sponsor
- Educational Testing Service · 5% of its filings
- Busiest state
- IL · 13% of its filings
- Major group
- Computer and mathematical · SOC 15
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 76 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Why
The 95% interval runs up to a 7.1% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.
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
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
$105,870above 72%
Approval rate
98.7%ahead of 79%
Median days to decision
494 daysahead of 4%
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
- 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
How this is counted
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
How this is counted
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
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 45 of 82 filings.
Where the work is
- Chicago, IL 7
- Salt Lake City, UT 7
- New York, NY 6
- Minneapolis, MN 4
- Princeton, NJ 4
- Ann Arbor, MI 3
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 31 of 82 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
Chicago Sun-Times
- 7 cases
The Salt Lake Tribune
- 6 cases
The New York Times
- 5 cases
The Star-Ledger
- 4 cases
Los Angeles Times
- 4 cases
The Seattle 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
- 79 cases
Job search websites
- 66 cases
Local or ethnic newspapers
- 49 cases
The employer's website
- 26 cases
Radio or TV ads
- 17 cases
Campus placement offices
- 5 cases
Employee referral programs
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
- 15%
60 to 89 days
- 24%
90 to 119 days
- 39%
120 to 149 days
- 18%
150 to 180 days
- 3.7%
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.
Against other jobs
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. 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.
- #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
The same job on H-1B
450 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $102,137 a year; the middle half ran $84,170 to $120,621. 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 15-1296. 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 82 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 Software Developers, R&D. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 82 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 Educational Testing Service. 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