Dive Brief:
- Silicon Valley may be the paragon of high-tech innovation, but it trailed metro areas in the Northeast corridor and Texas in H-1B approvals for highly skilled workers from 2010 to 2016, according to the Pew Research Center. The New York City metro area received 247,900 temporary visa approvals, or 29% of the total granted, during that period.
- The Dallas and Washington, D.C., areas were next, followed by Boston and the College Station, Texas, area. College Station received 32 H-1B approvals per 100 workers, while no other metro area had more than five per 100 workers. Pew noted that almost all of College Station's approvals went to employees of one company, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.
- Silicon Valley's home base, the metro area including San Jose, California, received 22,200 H-1B approvals, or two for every 100 workers. The government approved more than 859,600 visa applications during the years reviewed.
Dive Insight:
Although the Pew study doesn't specifically address the skills gap problem, it might be worth noting how these numbers line up with some of the metropolitan areas said to have the greatest need for highly skilled workers. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the San Francisco Bay area, Washington, D.C., and Austin, TX, have the largest overall skills gaps.
Additionally, while Silicon Valley barely cracked Pew's top ten list of visa approvals, it is reportedly most in need of highly skilled workers — and also takes quite a bit of political heat for its H-1B usage.
The H-1B cycle begins again this week. For a rundown for the current status of H-1B filing rules, read our latest coverage here.
