Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 15-1133, #31 of 1,410 by filings
Software Developers, Systems Software
- Biggest sponsor
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC · 27% of its filings
- Busiest state
- CA · 37% 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.
Median wage
$143,700
all PERM $103,272
Filings
2,284
#31 of 1,410
Approval
95.0%
field 96.8%
Median days
356
121 faster 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
$143,700above 90%
Approval rate
95.0%ahead of 37%
Median days to decision
356 daysahead of 99.4%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
- 5th to 95th
- 25th to 75th
- Median
- 10th and 90th
CA
$157,900 median · 776 certified cases
WA
$143,700 median · 640 certified cases
| State | Cases | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 776 | $119,500 | $130,894 | $139,975 | $157,900 | $179,347 | $190,000 | $212,700 |
| WA | 640 | $127,121 | $143,700 | $143,700 | $143,700 | $145,212 | $168,100 | $170,000 |
One SOC code, one federal process, and a wage range that moves with the state. 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
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC 623 filings · 99.4% approved
- AMAZON DEVELOPMENT CENTER U.S., INC 210 filings · 99.5% approved
- APPLE INC. 127 filings · 100.0% approved
- NVIDIA CORPORATION 91 filings · 98.9% approved
- AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC. 70 filings · 100.0% approved
- VMWARE, INC. 70 filings · 100.0% approved
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 1,191 of 2,284 filings, 52% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Loewy, LLP 991 filings · 98.6% approved
- Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 465 filings · 89.8% approved
- Farrell LLP 199 filings · 100.0% approved
- Ogletree Deakins 53 filings · 84.9% approved
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak Stewart, P.C. 30 filings · 96.7% approved
- Erickson Immigration Group 27 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 1,765 of 2,284 filings, 77% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 855
- Washington 655
- Texas 161
- New York 148
- Massachusetts 93
- Illinois 37
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 1,949 of 2,284 filings.
Where the work is
- Seattle, WA 609
- Cupertino, CA 130
- New York, NY 129
- Sunnyvale, CA 124
- Santa Clara, CA 112
- Austin, TX 99
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 1,203 of 2,284 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
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- India 51,065
- China 16,826
- Canada 2,580
- Taiwan 1,027
- Russia 855
- Mexico 793
Worker's education
- Master's 53,873
- Bachelor's 24,192
- Doctorate 2,879
- None 718
- Other 418
- Associate's 105
Visa held when filed
- H-1B 64,976
- L-1 7,586
- F-1 5,867
- TN 1,423
- NOT IN USA 288
- E-3 265
Schools
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 3,266
- CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 2,656
- SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY 1,663
- JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 1,452
- NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY 1,372
- NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY 1,363
Fields of study
- COMPUTER SCIENCE 25,115
- COMPUTER ENGINEERING 10,052
- ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 7,029
- ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING 3,513
- ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 2,738
- COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 2,402
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.
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WASeattle
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CACupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJNew York
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TXAustin
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | — | $97,760 | $119,350 | $140,920 | $162,510 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | — | $104,291 | $130,894 | $157,477 | $184,080 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | — | $79,914 | $101,754 | $123,614 | $145,454 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | — | $72,384 | $90,750 | $109,138 | $127,504 |
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
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 31 of 1,410 by volume: 30 filed at least as many filings, and 1,379 filed no more.
- Just above
- Data Warehousing Specialists 2,350 filings
- Just below
- Civil Engineers 2,185 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.
- #30 Data Warehousing Specialists 2,350 filings · 23 denied
- #35 Information Security Analysts 1,982 filings · 27 denied
- #36 Database Architects 1,893 filings · 18 denied
- #22 Computer Occupations, All Other 2,605 filings · 95 denied
- #40 Network and Computer Systems Administrators 1,571 filings · 33 denied
- #43 Computer Programmers 1,436 filings · 35 denied
The same job on H-1B
89,762 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $124,000 a year; the middle half ran $100,027 to $152,336. 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 15-1133. 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 2,284 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, Systems Software. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 2,284 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 AMAZON.COM SERVICES 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