H-1B Visas Lead To Faster Earnings Growth For US Workers

Hiring H-1B visa holders leads to higher earnings growth for United State workers, new research by the National Foundation for American Policy showed.

Bringing in curbs on the immigrant visa program would result in jobs being offshored harming US workers in the same segment.

A 2nd study by the non-partisan, non-profit public policy research firm found that the rate of unemployment for computer occupations declined to 2.8% in April even as overall unemployment increased. These studies have come at a time when US President Trump is contemplating a ban on non-immigrant work visas, including the H-1B.

The 1st study, based on H-1B visa data from 2005 to 2018, found that an increase in the share of workers with a visa within an occupation, on average, reduces the unemployment rate in that occupation. So, rather than adversely impact labor market opportunities for US workers, the H-1B program leads to faster earnings growth, it found.

Another study on unemployment rates by NFAP found that the jobless rate for individuals in IT occupations declined from 3% in January 2020 to 2.8% in April 2020, while for other occupations it went up from 4.1 percent to 15percrnt. A large majority of the H-1B visa petitions are filed for IT roles, pointing to the fact that there is still demand in America for high tech skills.

During the 30 days ending May 13, 2020, there were over 6 lakhs active job vacancy postings advertised online for jobs in common IT occupations, including those most common to H-1B visa holders, according to Emsi Job Posting Analytics.

So, it may be difficult for the Trump government to bring in restrictions on the H-1B visa or the OPT program for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students using unemployment data, it said.