Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 51-4121, #824 of 1,410 by filings

WELDER

3 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: DELCO TRAILERS LLC · 80% of its filings
Busiest state: TX · 90% of its filings
Major group: Production · SOC 51

Weighing an offer for this job?

Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

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

$29,682

all PERM $103,272

Filings

#824 of 1,410

Approval

Not shown

withheld: 10 decided

Median days

475

2 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.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$29,682median of 10 filings, too few decided to rank

$18k $500k

Approval rate

not shownunder 30 decided

49% 100%

Median days to decision

475 daysmiddle of 10 decided, too few to rank

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. More

Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. This occupation has 10 decided cases, so its wage and its median days are marked but left unranked, and no approval rate is drawn at all.

DOL PERM disclosure files

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

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 10 of 10 filings, 100% of the total.

Firms filing it

Estrella Law 1 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 1 of 10 filings, 10% of the total.

Where the jobs are

Texas 9
Utah 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 2 states cover 10 of 10 filings.

Where the work is

Sumner, TX 8
Eagle Mountain, UT 1
Pearland, TX 1

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 3 cities cover 10 of 10 filings.

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

Mexico 190
Canada 97
Poland 14
Bolivia 12
Brazil 12
South Korea 9

Worker's education

None 353
High School 28
Other 21

Visa held when filed

B-2 38
NOT IN USA 25
EWI 20
B-1 16
H-2B 12
E-2 4

Schools

IAGI 10
N/A 4
HIGH SCHOOL NO. XVI 2
NABI KFT 2
ARMENIAN EVANGELICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, SHAMLIANTATIKIAN 1
ASSOCIATION SECONDARY OCCUPATIONAL SCHOOL OF NITROGEN PLANT NAME OF F. DZIERZYNS 1

Fields of study

GEOSYNTHETIC WELDING 10
HIGH SCHOOL 5
GENERAL 4
N/A 4
WELDING 4
BUS MANUFACTURING (FRAMEWORK) AND WELDING 2

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.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27

United States
416,210 jobs
Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT
Eagle Mountain
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Pearland

$40k$60k$80k

middle half of pay (BLS)
median
10th to 90th percentile
DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
median PERM offer

Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area	BLS median	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
United States	$53,750
Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT	$54,740	$45,698	$51,355	$57,013	$62,670
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$57,940	$42,286	$50,877	$59,446	$68,037

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

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT, 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.

DOL wage levels by wage year, Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$45,698	$51,355	$57,013	$62,670
2025-26	$43,077	$49,005	$54,933	$60,861
2024-25	$40,789	$46,384	$52,000	$57,595
2023-24	$38,376	$43,950	$49,525	$55,099
2022-23	$35,464	$40,706	$45,968	$51,210
2021-22	$34,445	$39,083	$43,722	$48,360

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

What the job is

Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.

Preparation: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed; O*NET Job Zone 1-2
DOL's education basis: High school diploma or equivalent; Wage year 2026-27
Jobs, 2025 to 2035: +2.4%; About 40,300 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent; BLS

The work, most important first

Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.

The education workers in it report

Less than a High School Diploma

21%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)

54%
Post-Secondary Certificate

12%
Some College Courses

11%

Titles people use for it

Brazer, Solderer, Welder, Wirer, Assembly Line Brazer, Fabrication Welder, Maintenance Welder, MIG Welder (Metal Inert Gas Welder).

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 824 of 1,410 by volume: 823 filed at least as many filings, and 586 filed no more.

Just above: Editors 10 filings
Just below: TILE FINISHER 10 filings

Other production 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.

The same job on H-1B

3 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $37,066 a year; the middle half ran $35,766 to $46,550. 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 51-4121. 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 10 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 WELDER. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 10 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 DELCO TRAILERS 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