PERM Statistics from the Department of Labor (FY2014 Q1)

The Department of Labor has provided some updates for the first quarter of the Fiscal Year 2014 (October 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013) on their processing of PERM cases and we are happy to share them with our clients and readers.    Please note that this period reflects the period of the partial government shutdown where DOL’s operations were suspended for 16 days.

DOL Processing Statistics (First Quarter, 2014 Fiscal Year)

PERM

According to the report, during the quarter, there were 17,623 cases received (slight 3% increase from the same period in the prior year), 9,076  certified (notable decrease by about 25% from the prior year), 1,039 denied (another notable decrease) and 949 withdrawn (about 50% increase).  Since the net amount of applications filed exceeded the number of applications adjudicated, DOL’s PERM load has grown during the quarter by about 7,000 cases.  This is also evidenced by the increasing PERM processing times (see the most recent report from February 2014).

Of the pending applications at DOL, 64% are pending analyst review (major increase from a year ago when the percentage was 47), 25% are in audit (decrease from 37%), 9% are on appeal (decrease from 14%) and 1% are in sponsorship verification (at filing).  It is interesting to note that there were no cases reported in supervised recruitment — we believe that this may be incorrect reporting, because there are supervised recruitment cases right now at DOL.    It is also notable that the percentage of cases pending analyst review have increased very substantially, while the audits have decreased somewhat.

Prevailing Wage Determinations

The prevailing wage report provides some detailed breakdown of the rate of filings in addition to details about top employers, top occupations and top areas.   During the first quarter, there were approximately 29,612 prevailing wage determination requests filed — of those, 23,585 were for PERM cases (decrease of 3,000 or 8%), 1,404 were for H-1B cases (decrease of 400 or 21%) and 4,625 were for H-2B cases (notable increase of 48%).

In terms of activity, less prevailing wage determinations were issued in Q1 compared to prior quarters – 23,850 (most likely due to the government shutdown).   The number of pending applications has increased compared to a year ago significantly – there are 19,972 prevailing wage cases pending on December 31, 2013 compared to 11,519 on December 31, 2012.

H-1B/LCA

The H-1B/LCA report also provides a breakdown in the rate of filings, in addition to some details about the top LCA filers, in addition to the top positions and geographic areas.    Since this quarter fell entirely outside of the H-1B cap filing season, the number of LCA filings is low compared to other quarters during the year.    But this report was affected by the government shutdown in October 2013.    Even then, there were 67,645 H-1B LCA filings in the first quarter, an increase over the prior year’s period which may be attributed to the rush of LCA filings post-government shutdown.    During the quarter, there were 69,334 LCAs certified for 144,657 positions (one LCA can include more than 1 position).

According to DOL, 79% of the LCAs are processed timely within seven days of receipt (last year’s period metric was 99%).     The rate of LCA denial is very small (1,858 out of 79,304 determinations) and the main reasons remain (1) FEIN mismatch or failure to verify before LCA filing  or (2) prevailing wage tracking number issues.

Conclusion

The first quarter of the FY2014 was a turbulent time at DOL due to the government shutdown and the reports provided for this period reflect this.      We are hopeful that DOL would work on decreasing its load and processing times, especially for the PERM cases where the processing times have increased significantly.    We will continue monitoring DOL processing metrics and report any notable developments and trends.      Please visit us again or subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to ensure that you obtain this and related immigration-related news and announcements.