July 8, 2009

DOL PERM and H Statistics for First Quarter of 2009

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification recently published a performance report providing statistics on H-1B, H-2A, H-2B and PERM Certification from January 2009 to March 2009. It is interesting that DOL's performance on the processing of PERM cases within six months of filing went from 94% in March 2008 to only 11% being processed within six months or less in March 2009. The report indicates that the decline in PERM performance and increase in processing times is due in part to the economy, which has led to increased scrutiny of filings. The DOL also notes that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification is developing baseline targets for an enhanced PERM performance measure and a new PERM integrity measure. These measures are scheduled for approval and implementation at the beginning of FY 2010. Based on DOL trends, we expect processing times to remain long and possibly increase, along with an increase in audits and supervised recruitment.