Analysis on U.S. H-1B Labor Condition and PERM Program Statistics of Fiscal Year 2015

The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) published selected statistics of FY2015 H-1B Labor Condition Program and Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) programs.

From the H-1B Labor Condition Program report, it is noticed that IT positions still occupy the first 5 top occupations filed. They are Computer Systems Analyst (332,885), Software Developers, Applications (145,180), Computer Programmers (141,756), Computer Occupations, All other (113,221) and Software Developer, Systems Software (69,980). California and Texas are top 2 states which together contributed 315,434 filings among overall 595,046 filings in FY2015.

From the PERM Program report, it showed that there were 78,938 PERM cases got certified by DOL. This stands for an increase by 16,305 cases compared with FY2014. Among these certified PERM cases, Computer and Mathematical occupations stand for 58%.

California and Texas are still the first top two states which received 40% certified PERM cases. Compared with FY2014, there was an increase of 6%. It is also noted that among the beneficiaries of these certified cases, 78% are on H-1B status, and 6% are on L-1 status. In addition, 58% certified PERM filings are for Indian nationals, followed by Chinese nationals which stands for 8% and then South Korean nationals which stands for 6%.

Overall, FY2015 statistic on H-1B Labor Condition and PERM programs clearly showed a continuous need for foreign nationals in United States professional job market, especially in the IT industry or related fields.