http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3143.html
E. EMPLOYMENT THIRD PREFERENCE VISA AVAILABILITY DURING THE COMING MONTHS
Little if any forward movement in the Employment Third preference category is expected in the near future. Recent discussions with both Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and the Department of Labor indicate that the demand for numbers with pre-August 2002 priority dates is likely to be extremely high in the coming months as both agencies continue to work on their backlogs. This could easily cause a retrogression of the current Employment Third preference cut-off dates should that demand begin to materialize at CIS offices during the spring and summer months.