PlainVisa

H-1B Occupations With the Broadest LCA Filer Coverage

Which H-1B occupations appear across the most distinct employer filers in the DOL LCA extract, not just the highest filing volume.

Research period:

Compiled by PlainVisa on 2026-09-09

Research question

Across the 1,200-plus SOC occupations in PlainVisa's database, which appear across the largest number of distinct employer filers, and how does that filing breadth differ from raw LCA filing volume?

Why breadth, not just volume

Raw LCA filing counts can be dominated by a handful of very large technology and consulting employers. An occupation can rank high on filing volume because a few firms submitted many LCAs, while relatively few distinct employer filers appear in the extract. Employer-filer breadth counts those distinct filers alongside the volume. It describes the administrative filing pattern; it does not establish hiring intent, confirmed sponsorship, or economy-wide labor demand.

This measure describes the breadth of DOL LCA filing activity, not demonstrated labor-market demand. Pairing employer-filer breadth with LCA filings per employer gives a fuller picture of how an occupation appears in this LCA extract than either number alone.

Methodology

We query the PlainVisa occupations table at server render time, ranking by the total_employers column, the count of distinct employers that filed at least one H-1B LCA for each SOC occupation. The population aggregate runs against the same filtered set, so the totals quoted in the prose match the leaderboard exactly. The secondary chart derives an LCA-filings-per-employer ratio for the same top roles by dividing total LCA filings by distinct employers, a simple concentration gauge. Every figure is computed live from a SELECT at request time; none is hardcoded, and the values refresh whenever the DOL LCA dataset is reingested.

Occupations with a null or zero distinct-employer count are excluded rather than shown as zero, because a missing aggregate is not the same as an occupation with no employer filers in the extract. The SOC taxonomy is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational Classification system, which groups jobs by the work performed; a single SOC code can therefore span a range of job titles and seniority levels, which is why we report breadth at the SOC level and link each row to its detail page for the underlying title mix.

See the methodology page for the source vintage and how the figures are derived.

Occupations with the most distinct employer filers

Distinct H-1B LCA filing employers per SOC occupation, FY2023–FY2026

employers

What this shows Across 1,219 occupations, this chart ranks the broadest employer-filer coverage in the disclosed LCA extract, separate from total filing volume.

Source U.S. Department of Labor OFLC As of FY2023–FY2026

The ranked top 10

Every row reflects the current data, ranked by distinct employer filers.

# Occupation (SOC) Distinct employers Total LCA filings LCA filings / employer
1 Software Developers 30,297 661,601 22
2 Data Scientists 10,275 56,032 5
3 Information Technology Project Managers 8,625 72,341 8
4 Business Intelligence Analysts 8,322 40,299 5
5 Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers 8,038 66,133 8
6 Computer Systems Engineers/Architects 7,865 100,726 13
7 Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists 7,534 17,981 2
8 Computer Systems Analysts 7,444 68,210 9
9 Computer and Information Systems Managers 6,705 48,687 7
10 Mechanical Engineers 6,542 34,350 5

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, DOL LCA Disclosure Data. Distinct-employer counts per occupation queried live from the PlainVisa snapshot at request time.

Findings

Breadth versus concentration

The LCA-filings-per-employer chart below gives a second view of the DOL record. A low ratio means filings are spread across more employer filers; a high ratio means a smaller number of employer filers account for more of the disclosed LCA rows. It does not establish sponsorship, hiring, or demand.

What filing breadth can and cannot show

An occupation appearing among many distinct employer filers has broader representation in this LCA extract. That pattern is not a measure of job availability, worker options, confirmed sponsorship, or labor-market demand; it is an additional descriptive view alongside a raw LCA-filing-count ranking.

Volume and breadth can diverge

Some occupations rank high on filing volume because a small number of employer filers account for many disclosed rows, while others appear across a broader set of employer filers. The two measures answer different questions about the DOL disclosure extract: concentration of filing rows and the number of distinct filing employers. Neither measure establishes an employer's hiring plans, an applicant's prospects, or an immigration outcome.

Using breadth with wage and geography

Pair the distinct-employer count with the listed offered-wage and worksite breakdowns on each occupation page to inspect the same source record from several angles. Those figures remain historical disclosure statistics, not verified pay, job availability, or a recommendation about a worker's options.

LCA filings per employer for the broadest filer-base roles

Lower means filings are spread across more employer filers

LCA filings / employer
Source U.S. Department of Labor OFLC As of FY2023–FY2026

What this analysis cannot tell us

Distinct-employer counts are at the SOC-occupation level, so a single code can blend several distinct job titles and seniority levels. Breadth counts any employer that filed at least one LCA for the role, regardless of how many; it measures DOL-record participation, not commitment. LCA-filings-per-employer is a coarse concentration proxy that does not capture the distribution within an occupation. LCA filings do not establish sponsorship, approved visas, filled positions, or labor-market demand. Comparisons across occupations should account for differing total labor-market sizes.

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