Shares of top 15 H-2B occupations with various education levels, 2014

H-2B Rank FY 2014* SOC Code Occupation O*NET Job Zone Less than high school diploma High school diploma or equivalent Post-secondary certificate Some college, no degree Associate’s degree Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree Doctoral degree
1 37-3011 Landscaping and groundskeeping workers 1 52 26 16
2 45-4011 Forest and conservation workers 3 n/a n/a n/a
3 39-3091 Amusement and recreation attendants 1 n/a n/a n/a
4 37-2012 Maids and housekeeping cleaners 2 35 64 1
5 51-3022 Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers 1 65 35
6 47-2061 Construction laborers 2 23 70 6
7 27-2022 Coaches and scouts 4 28 47 15
8 35-3031 Waiters and waitresses 1 37 50 7
9 39-2021 Nonfarm animal caretakers 1 34 24 18
10 45-3011 Fishers and related fishing workers 1 50 25 10
11 51-9198 Helpers—production workers 1 36 52 11
12 35-2014 Cooks, restaurant 2 33 38 11
13 53-7064 Packers and packagers, hand 2 31 47 19
14 35-2021 Food preparation workers 1 54 30 7
15 35-9011 Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers 1 46 50 4

*Number of labor certifications, from Table 1.

Note:  SOC stands for Standard Occupational Classification system used by federal agencies to classify workers into occupational categories; n/a = not available; blank entries = no data reported by O*NET OnLine.

U.S. DOL's Occupational Information Network (O*NET) slots occupations into zones depending on the educational and training needs of the occupation; the higher the zone number, the greater the need. For H-2B rankings, data set excludes records from original  labeled "certification expired" and "partial certification expired" because expired records were not likely to become approved USCIS H-2B petitions or visas issued by the State Department.

Source: H-2B Disclosure Data from the Office of Foreign Labor Certification's Performance Data; and O*NET OnLine

View the underlying data on epi.org.