October 12, 2011

DOL PERM and H Statistics for Fiscal Year 2010

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) recently published a performance report providing statistics on H-1B, H-2A, H-2B and PERM Certification from October 2009 to September 2010. The following are just a few highlights and interesting statistics from this report:

•  In FY 2010, OFLC processed 422,228 employer applications requesting 851,556 positions for permanent and temporary foreign labor certifications. The H-1B program was the only OFLC program to see an increase in the number of positions requested from the previous fiscal year.
• PERM Labor certification adjudications improved by 127 percent and reduced average case processing time by more than 50 percent to 167 days.
• In FY 2010, PERM was the most commonly identified visa classification on requests for PWDs. The temporary H-1B specialty worker program accounted for the second most common visa classification identified. Of the total PWDs issued, 72 percent were issued to employers who intended to apply for permanent labor certification, while 21 percent were issued to employers considering the temporary H-1B specialty worker program.
• The state of California had the highest number of prevailing wage requests (12,770 issued) and had the highest number of PERM filings/certifications
• The top five employers for PERM certifications are Apple, Bank of America, Bloomberg L.P. and Broadcom.
• Not surprisingly, the most common occupation for which a prevailing wage was requested was Computer Software Engineers, Applications. This job category was also saw the highest number of PERM application filings, with nearly 10,000 certifications.
• The top five countries of origination for PERM filings were: India, South Korea, China, Canada and Mexico.
• The states with the highest amount of H-2B Agricultural certifications are: North Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia and Florida.

The report also provides numerous state-by-state breakdowns for the number of H-1B, PERM and H-2B certifications as well as other data. Please find the report here.