Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) data provides you visibility into where employers are requesting permission to sponsor international talent and the labor conditions associated with those requests across occupations, industries, and regions.

An employer must file an LCA with the U.S. Department of Labor before submitting an H-1B petition, attesting to wages and working conditions for the roles they intend to sponsor.

By examining LCA activity over time, you can identify patterns in employer sponsorship filings and understand where organizations are requesting permission to hire international workers. This helps reveal which occupations, industries, and companies are frequently filing LCAs and how that activity changes over time.

The data also highlights wages associated with these filings, helping users contextualize labor market conditions for roles where employers may seek international sponsorship. Geographic analysis allows users to see where LCA activity is concentrated and how sponsorship varies across regions. Together, these insights help employers, policymakers, and workforce leaders better understand sponsorship planning activity and where employers may be exploring international hiring as part of their workforce strategy.

To generate this report, start by selecting an occupation. You can choose an occupation linked to SOC, O*NET, or LOT classifications, and you may select multiple related occupations at the same time. Next, select the location and time frame. You can further refine the results using additional filters such as industry and company.

After you run the report, the selected filters remain available within the report view, allowing you to compare or adjust results directly.

For example, when generating a report for the Software Developer occupation, the results may display industries such as Software Publishers, along with its NAICS code and insights including the number of Workers requested as 9,053, Total Certified Applications are 4,449, Share of Workers Requested is 25.21%, and $174,003 as the Proposed Median Salary.

This report provides a comprehensive view of LCAs for selected occupations and locations within a chosen time frame. At the top of the report, a brief description explains its purpose, and you can select “more details” to view an expanded explanation of LCA data.

For the selected occupation, the report displays all relevant results along with standard data columns. This structured layout allows you to review LCA activity consistently across occupations and locations.

This report automatically includes a set of standard columns based on the selected filters, such as Industry, Occupation, and Company. These default columns ensure a consistent and structured view of insights across the selected time frame.

This section allows you to tailor the report by selecting only the relevant columns using additional columns. This helps you to reduce the clutter in the report. You can customize By

The toggle feature provides a quick visual comparison of values within a column. It highlights higher and lower values using color intensity to make trends easier to identify.

Filters help narrow the report results so you can focus on specific time periods, occupations, industries or locations. Using filters improves accuracy and supports deeper analysis.

All available filters appear on the left side of the report.

This section allows you to reuse or download your customized report. Saving and exporting of the report ensures easy access and sharing of insights.

Save

After generating the report with your selected options:

Saved reports are available in the Saved Reports section on the home page.

Export

You can download the report for offline use.

NAICS Code: The North American Industry Classification System code that identifies the employer's industry sector, used to group and compare LCA (Labor Condition Applications) filings across industries.

Industry: The name of the industry sector corresponding to the NAICS Code, identifying the employer's primary business activity.

Total Certified Applications: The number of LCA filings approved by the U.S. Department of Labor for the selected filters within the chosen time frame.

Workers Requested: The total number of H‑1B workers requested across all certified applications.

Share of Workers Requested: The percentage of total requested workers that a particular row (industry, occupation, or employer) accounts for, relative to all results in the current filtered view.

Proposed Median Salary: The midpoint salary that employers proposed to pay H‑1B workers, as declared on their LCA filings.

In place of the NAICS Code and Industry Columns present under the Industry Filter, the following two columns are present under the Occupation Filter:

SOC Code The Standard Occupational Classification code assigned to the role being sponsored, used to categorize and compare LCA filings by occupation type.

Occupation The job title or occupational category corresponding to the SOC Code, identifying the type of role the employer is seeking to fill through H-1B sponsorship.

Under the Company Filter, there is no column for either NAICS Code or SOC code. Moreover, the column “Industry” and “Occupation” under the Industry and Occupation Filters respectively, is replaced with the “Company” column under the Company Filter.

Company The name of the employer that filed the LCA, as recorded in the DOL filing.

To add optional columns to the table, click on the “Add/Remove Columns” on the top left of the table right below the filters.

You will then be able to select which columns you want to select apart from the defaults already selected. Below are the descriptions of the optional columns:

New Employment: Hiring a worker who will begin H‑1B employment with the employer for the first time.

Continued Employment: Continuing employment of a worker already in H‑1B status with the same employer.

Change Employer: Hiring a worker who currently holds H‑1B status with a different employer (transfer).

Change in Previously Approved Employment: Ongoing employment with the same employer and same job; filing exists for administrative or status-related continuity, not a new or changed role.

New Concurrent Employment: Hiring a worker who will hold H‑1B employment with this employer in addition to another H‑1B job.

Amended Petition: Filing to reflect a material change to an existing H‑1B role (e.g., job duties or work location).

Denied Applications: LCA filings that were reviewed and rejected by the DOL, meaning the employer was not authorized to proceed with H‑1B sponsorship for that role.

Withdrawn Applications: LCA filings that the employer voluntarily retracted before a DOL decision was made.

Change in Certified Applications: The absolute change in the number of certified LCA filings compared to the same period in the prior year.

%Change in Certified Applications: The percentage change in certified LCA filings compared to the same period in the prior year.

Change in Workers Requested: The absolute change in the total number of workers requested compared to the same period in the prior year.

%Change in Workers Requested: The percentage change in the total number of workers requested compared to the same period in the prior year.

Change in Proposed Median Salary: The absolute change in the Lightcast-calculated median proposed salary compared to the same period in the prior year.

%Change in Proposed Median Salary: The percentage change in the Lightcast-calculated median proposed salary compared to the same period in the prior year.

You can generate a Location report for regional comparison and identify which areas are concentrated for LCA for selected occupation and support geographic decision-making and identify the trends on regional reliance and international talent.

This report uses the same steps as the standard LCA report generation process. Refer to the How to generate report section and follow those steps to run the report. Once the report is generated using your selected options, the system automatically creates a location-based view of the data.

The geographic map visually represents the selected locations included in the report. Each selected location is highlighted on the map for easy identification.

When you point to a highlighted location on the map, a tooltip appears. The tooltip shows:

For example, the tooltip may display:

This allows you to quickly view location-specific application counts without leaving the report view.

In addition to the map, the same data is displayed in a table format below the map. This view allows users to review and compare numeric values across locations.

The table referenced includes the following columns other than selection location:

Note that all standard table report features are available for the location-based report as well. This ensures a consistent experience across different report views.

You can use Default Columns, Customize Columns, Toggle View, Apply filters, and Save or Export in location report the same way as tabular report.