Nearly all H-2B workers are employed in a small number of occupations: Top-10 H-2B occupations by number of USCIS-approved petitions, fiscal year 2024
| H-2B Rank | Major group SOC code | Occupation | Initial approval | Continuing approval | Change of employer approval | Total approvals | Share of total H-2B approvals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37 | Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations | 84,067 | 740 | 8,542 | 93,349 | 45.86% |
| 2 | 35 | Food preparation and serving related occupations | 18,988 | 79 | 9,679 | 28,746 | 14.12% |
| 3 | 47 | Construction and extraction occupations | 14,808 | 141 | 2,373 | 15,684 | 7.70% |
| 4 | 51 | Production occupations | 13,910 | 250 | 527 | 15,476 | 7.60% |
| 5 | 45 | Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations | 13,028 | 283 | 509 | 14,669 | 7.21% |
| 6 | 39 | Personal care and services occupations | 11,225 | 39 | 1,861 | 13,125 | 6.45% |
| 7 | N/A | N/A | 5,593 | 2,986 | 178 | 8,757 | 4.30% |
| 8 | 53 | Transportation and material moving operations | 6,129 | 42 | 454 | 6,625 | 3.25% |
| 9 | 49 | Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations | 3,004 | 8 | 529 | 3,541 | 1.74% |
| 10 | 41 | Sales and related occupations | 1,107 | – | 66 | 1,173 | 0.58% |
| Totals for the top 10 | 171,859 | 4,568 | 24,718 | 201,145 | 98.8% | ||
| Totals for top-10 occupations excluding N/A | 166,266 | 1,582 | 24,540 | 192,388 | 94.5% | ||
| Total H-2B approvals, all occupations | 173,921 | 4,580 | 25,056 | 203,557 | 100.0% | ||
Note: SOC stands for Standard Occupational Classification, which is a system of job classification created by the U.S. Department of Labor, see https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm. N/A stands for not available; these were individual records in the H-2B Employer Data Hub that had blank fields for the column listing the occupation in an H-2B petition. Approved H-2B petitions for an employment change with the same employer, new concurrent approvals, and amended approvals, were excluded from the calculation.
Source: EPI analysis of fiscal year 2024 data file from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, H-2B Employer Data Hub, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.