H-1B demand profile: Data Scientists. Under U.S. Department of Labor standard occupational classification 15-2051-00, employers filed 48,744 Labor Condition Applications for Data Scientists positions across 9,869 distinct H-1B sponsors. The DOL certified these petitions at a 94.2% rate, a measure of how cleanly the prevailing-wage and working-conditions attestations cleared preliminary review. That volume places Data Scientists among the concrete, data-backed specialty occupations qualifying under the H-1B program’s bachelor’s-degree-plus-theoretical-knowledge standard.

Salary band for Data Scientists. Offered wages on LCAs range from $18,000 at the floor to $1,000,000 at the ceiling, with an average of $132,884. These figures reflect what employers commit to pay sponsored workers, not market averages, each offer must meet or exceed the DOL prevailing wage (Level I through IV) for the worksite, so the distribution tracks wage-level geography, years of experience, and regional cost of labor more than it does any single employer’s pay philosophy.

Where and who sponsors Data Scientists. The top sponsor is Microsoft Corporation with 2,209 petitions at an average offered wage of $167,918, followed by Amazon.com Services LLC, WAL-MART ASSOCIATES, INC, Meta Platforms, Inc. Geographically, CA leads with 10,863 filings (avg $164,897), followed by TX, WA, NY. Taken together, the sponsor concentration and state footprint give a practical read on where demand for Data Scientists actually clusters in the U.S. labor market, and how competitive pay for the role looks through the DOL’s H-1B lens.