H-1B sponsorship in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro. U.S. Department of Labor disclosure data shows 49,241 Labor Condition Applications filed by 6,653 distinct employers across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area. DOL certified those petitions at a 92% rate, confirming that prevailing-wage and working-conditions attestations passed the Labor Department’s preliminary review before USCIS handled final H-1B adjudication. That volume places Chicago-Naperville-Elgin on the map as a measurable node in the national H-1B program, with its own distinct employer mix and occupation concentration.

Pay and occupation mix. The average offered wage on LCAs filed in the metro is $260,689. Because each LCA must meet or exceed the DOL prevailing wage for the specific occupation and worksite, that figure represents real pay commitments rather than voluntary market reporting. The most frequently sponsored role in the metro is Software Developers, which signals where employer demand for specialty-occupation talent is concentrated locally. Salary levels in a metro reflect the balance of wage levels (DOL Level I through IV) and the seniority tier of the roles employers are filling through the H-1B channel, so metro averages are a useful read on the sophistication of the local tech, healthcare, engineering, or finance workforce.

Who is sponsoring. The top H-1B sponsor in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro is Ernst & Young US LLP, anchoring a pool of 6,653 employers active in the area. Petition volume moved from 16,798 in FY2023 to 15,639 in FY2025, a decreased trajectory that typically reflects shifts in local hiring, company growth, or program caps. Because DOL releases LCA disclosures as open public records, every figure here traces back to individual petitions filed with the Department of Labor, giving this metro snapshot the same auditability as a government-released dataset.