On June 24, 2025, the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) announced that it reviewed occupational and education data and published a new list of occupations on its website, as it does annually per a 2021 Federal Register notice. OFLC said the list of professional occupations “serves as a guide for employers to distinguish between professional and non-professional occupations in order to comply with the professional recruitment requirements of the PERM program.”
Appendix A to the Preamble–Education and Training Categories by Occupational Information Network (O*NET)–Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Occupations, which implements the new list of professional occupations for the July 2025 through June 2026 wage year, will be effective July 1, 2025.
