Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 51-4121.00, #266 of 1,410 by filings
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Biggest sponsor
- C&C Marine and Repair, LLC · 23% of its filings
- Busiest state
- TX · 36% 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.
Median wage
$44,720
all PERM $103,272
Filings
131
#266 of 1,410
Approval
89.8%
field 96.8%
Median days
485
8 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
$44,720above 27%
Approval rate
89.8%ahead of 14%
Median days to decision
485 daysahead of 20%
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
- C&C Marine and Repair, LLC 30 filings · 100.0% approved
- Delco Trailers LLC 18 filings
- GRI Towers Texas, Inc. 8 filings
- Maxey Trailers Mfg Inc. 6 filings
- CORE TECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION 5 filings
- GENERAL ASIA PACIFIC CONSTRUCTION, LLC 5 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 72 of 131 filings, 55% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Law Offices of Malvern C Burnett, APLC 30 filings · 100.0% approved
- Dickinson Wright PLLC 8 filings
- Law Offices of Richard A Gump, Jr. 6 filings
- Kurczaba & Brozek Law Offices, LLC 5 filings
- MAILMAN & KARA, LLC 5 filings
- PETERS CONSULTING 5 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 59 of 131 filings, 45% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Texas 47
- Louisiana 31
- Illinois 8
- Guam 6
- Florida 5
- Northern Mariana Islands 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 102 of 131 filings.
Where the work is
- Belle Chasse, LA 30
- Brookston, TX 18
- Amarillo, TX 8
- Sumner, TX 6
- Saipan, MP 5
- Tamuning, GU 5
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 72 of 131 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
- 30 cases
The Times-Picayune
- 25 cases
The Paris News
- 8 cases
Amarillo Globe News
- 8 cases
Chicago Sun-Times
- 6 cases
Guam Daily Post
- 5 cases
MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS & VIEWS
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
- 8 cases
Employee referral programs
- 8 cases
Job search websites
- 8 cases
Radio or TV ads
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
- 1.6%
30 to 59 days
- 12%
60 to 89 days
- 22%
90 to 119 days
- 28%
120 to 149 days
- 29%
150 to 180 days
- 7.9%
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.
- United States416,210 jobs
- New Orleans-Metairie, LABelle Chasse
- North Region of Texas nonmetropolitan areaBrookston
- Amarillo, TXAmarillo
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $53,750 | ||||
| New Orleans-Metairie, LA | $63,270 | $47,486 | $56,389 | $65,291 | $74,194 |
| North Region of Texas nonmetropolitan area | $48,430 | $41,413 | $47,923 | $54,434 | $60,944 |
| Amarillo, TX | $55,460 | $40,269 | $47,008 | $53,768 | $60,507 |
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
DOL's levels for this job in New Orleans-Metairie, LA, 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.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $47,486 | $56,389 | $65,291 | $74,194 |
| 2025-26 | $46,862 | $54,808 | $62,754 | $70,699 |
| 2024-25 | $42,702 | $49,878 | $57,054 | $64,230 |
| 2023-24 | $40,872 | $47,778 | $54,662 | $61,568 |
| 2022-23 | $38,750 | $45,531 | $52,333 | $59,114 |
| 2021-22 | $36,629 | $45,302 | $53,997 | $62,670 |
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
- 21%
Less than a High School Diploma
- 54%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 12%
Post-Secondary Certificate
- 11%
Some College Courses
Titles people use for it
Brazer, Solderer, Welder, Wirer, Assembly Line Brazer, Fabrication Welder, Maintenance Welder, MIG Welder (Metal Inert Gas Welder).
Related jobs: Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters, Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers, Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, Boilermakers, Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers.
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 266 of 1,410 by volume: 265 filed at least as many filings, and 1,144 filed no more.
- Just above
- Environmental Engineers 131 filings
- Just below
- Office Services Specialist 131 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.
- #263 Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers 137 filings · 1 denied
- #274 Butchers and Meat Cutters 125 filings · 33 denied
- #235 Food Batchmakers 163 filings · 3 denied
- #316 Food Batchmakers 96 filings · 16 denied
- #210 First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers 202 filings · 13 denied
- #326 Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers 89 filings · 8 denied
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 51-4121.00. 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 131 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 Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 131 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 C&C Marine and Repair, 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 the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest
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