US in High Demand of Skilled Labor

A new report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) indicates that major US companies experience severe shortages of skilled labor. According to the report, major U.S. technology companies today average more than 470 U.S.-based skilled job openings.  NFAP surveyed postings for U.S.-based jobs that require at least an undergraduate degree for 500 companies listed in the S&P 500.  The results suggest that there are 140,000 skilled job openings today (the research was conducted with December 2007, January 2008 and February 2008 data).  If this demand number is extrapolated through the broader economy for non-S&P 500 companies, the number of available skilled job in the U.S. economy becomes substantially larger.

Among the other findings of the report was the fact that the shortage of H-1B visas has resulted in a significant increase in demand of skilled labor.  Because of the relatively complicated and long procedure for obtaining labor-based U.S. permanent residency, the H-1B program has been crucial avenue for U.S. companies to attracting skilled labor.  The unavailability of H-1B numbers over the past years makes recruiting foreign talent increasingly difficult.

Another finding was that in 2005, foreign nationals received 55% of electrical engineering master’s degrees and 42% of computer science master’s degrees.  Because of this substantial proportion and numbers of skilled foreign nationals, companies are facing difficulties in hiring them due to visa number unavailability.  Even though USCIS instituted a separate number of U.S. advanced degree holders for the purposes of H-1B visas, the 20,000 additional advanced degree H-1B visa numbers are quickly exhausted at the beginning of each fiscal year.

The NFAP study helps highlight some important issues which not only affect immigrants but a large number of U.S. businesses who are in desperate need of qualified talent.  Even though there is a wide demand of skilled professionals, the slow and inadequate number of labor visas make it increasingly difficult for foreign nationals to obtain work in the U.S.