Highest Number of H-1B Visa Workers Employed in U.S. East Coast, Texas

The maximum number of workers with H-1B visas in the United States were employed in East Coast and Texas from 2010 to 2016, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.

About 247,900 H-1B visa approvals, which made up 29 per cent of the nation’s total, were granted to employers in the New York City metro area from fiscal 2010 to 2016, the report, based on analysis of previously unpublished metro-level government data obtained through a public records request, showed. The Dallas and Washington metro areas were given 74,000 and 64,800 approvals, respectively, and had the next-highest totals. Boston, with 38,300 approvals, was also among the top metro areas by this measure.

“When looking at the footprint of high-skilled foreign workers by metro area, College Station, Texas, stands far above the rest, with about 32 H-1B approvals per 100 workers,” the analysis said. More than 99 per cent of the H-1B approvals here were granted to employees of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., whose U.S. headquarters is at College Station. By comparison, no other metro area had more than five H-1B approvals per 100 workers.

“Demand for the high-skilled worker visas has boomed in recent years, and the H-1B program is now the primary way employers in the United States hire high-skilled foreign workers. The program could shrink under the Trump administration, which has recently placed stricter requirements on applications,” the report said.

Interestingly, the San Jose, California, metro area — home to the Silicon Valley — trailed on this measure, although some of the world’s top technology companies are located there. The San Jose metro area had 22,200 H-1B approvals from fiscal 2010 to 2016, which amounted to two approvals per 100 workers.

Across the nation, foreign workers approved for H-1B visas earned an average salary of $80,600 during 2010-2016. Bridgeport, Connecticut, had the highest average salary at $100,200, followed by Seattle with $98,100 and Phoenix with $97,100. The average salary in 2010-2016 at College Station, Texas, was $82,600.

“Some metro areas with relatively small numbers of H-1B approvals stood out in the hires of workers with advanced degrees. In Erie, Pennsylvania, three-fourths (75%) of H-1B approvals in fiscal 2010-2016 went to foreign workers with advanced degrees,” according to the analysis. It was followed by Memphis in Tennessee, and Phoenix in Arizona, both at 69 per cent, and Sacramento in California at 68 per cent.

Foreign workers with an advanced degree such as master’s, professional or doctorate, earned either in the United States or internationally, got about half (49 per cent) of H-1B approvals in recent years, the report said.