The Trump admission has targeted the H1B visa since he came into power in 2016. He has repeatedly accused that the firms have used the H1B visa program misappropriately to hire cheap foreign labor, and that has contributed lesser jobs for American workers.
The H1B visa program has already been modified a number of times, and the future seems uncertain at the same time.
The Government also redefined the ‘speciality’ occupation. It prevents firms from hiring overseas workers with any degree. So you will need to have a degree specific to the job under the speciality occupation. So no more anybody can be recruited for a cheaper package.
Also, the government is not letting the businesses to undercut US-level salaries. The Trump administration also has increased the salary threshold of H1B visa holders, and this will probably grow in the future.
So, under the new changes, the highest skilled immigrants will get a salary in the 95th percentile of the prevailing wage for their occupation. This has been a huge spike compared to the prevailing salaries.
Before the change, it remained in the 67th percentile as per the H1B visa rules. Not only salaries, there are a number of other changes. The workers who are recruited by the IT firms can now only stay upto a year. So the visas will only be valid for a period of 12 months in the US.
The limited stay validity directly affects a lot pf people working in the US, mostly from India.
The demand for H1B visa has seen a slump, and the upcoming modifications will further deteriorate the scenario. So, in future there will only sluggish demand for H1B visas expected by a handful of firms.
The H1B visa demand is expected to come down to one-third, but this at the the same time will let more Americans join the companies in their own country, often taken away by overseas workers with cheaper packages.
Bloomberg earlier reported that it’s not a good choice. The outcome is said to be exact opposite and called it to be a ‘defeat’ for the US workforce. The report also claimed that the jobs increase consumer demand and help companies to innovate, create new products / services and expand in other areas.
Going by the estimates, currently two-thirds of America’s H1B visa holders are recruited in the ‘computer-related’ fields, and it’s known to be in huge demand and shortage of workers.
As per the Labor Department data the unemployment rate for computer programmers stands at 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2020. In comparison, the entire US workforce has a 8.8 percent unemployment rate. The total vacancies in the technology sector have been growing, and now stands at 4.7 percent since April 2020.
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