Study: Visa law prevents companies from hiring best workers
Study: Visa law prevents companies from hiring best workers
There’s a lot of talk about outsourcing these days. But what about all those workers — especially the highly skilled ones — that companies like to bring into the country?
A new report out today from the Brookings Institution found that many employers in the U.S. aren’t in fact able to hire all the workers that they’d like to.
The H-1B visa program is one that allows workers from foreign countries with specialized skills to come work in the U.S. for a temporary amount of time (granted in three-year increments).
But Brookings found that this system of capping the amount of visas is having big impacts in some places that need a lot more of these workers than others: Demand almost always exceeds supply.
The biggest demand comes from places like Silicon Valley, but also academic hot spots like Ann Arbor, Mich. and Durham, N.C. (Academic and research institutions are not subject to the cap, according to the Brookings Institution. But these cities also are home to many private companies started by local graduates.)
“In Columbus, Ind. as well as Peoria, Ill., a very high share of their requests for H1-B visas are in science, technology, engineering and math,” says Neal Ruiz at Brookings. “In the heartland of America, there’s a need for high skilled in American manufacturing.”
The biggest sectors taking advantage of these H-1B visas are science, technology, engineering and math. Most of the foreign workers, at this point, are coming from India and China, and are computing experts.
See below for the companies, cities, and industries seeking the most H-1B visas.
Top Employers Requesting H-1B Workers (2010-2011 average share)
1. Microsoft Corporation
2. Tata Consultancy Services Limited
3. Deloitte Consulting
4. Wipro Limited
5. Cognizant Technology Solutions
6. Larsen & Toubro Limited
7. IBM India
8. Infosys Limited
9. Intel Corporation
10. IBM Corporation
***The top ten companies account for 7.32% share of H-1B requests
Top Occupation Groups for H1-B Workers
1. Computer Occupations 46.8%
2. Engineers 8.2%
3. Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners 6.4%
4. Financial Specialists 5.7%
5. Business Operations Specialists 4.0%
6. Life Scientists 3.7%
7. Social Scientists and Related Workers 2.4%
8. Postsecondary Teachers 2.4%
9. Operations Specialties Managers 2.2%
10. Other Management Occupations 2.2%
Top Metropolitan Areas for H1-B Worker Demand Intensity (Intensity is H1-B workers/total jobs in the area)
1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
2. Columbus, IN
3. Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
4. Trenton-Ewing, NJ
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
6. Bloomington-Normal, IL
7. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
8. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
9. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
10. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Data Credit: Brookings Institute, LCA database, Department of Labor
Katie Long and Mary Dooe contributed to this report.
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