H-1B Statistics for Fiscal Year 2009

Each year, the Department of Homeland Security is required by law to provide to Congress a report on the characteristics of the H-1B specialty occupation workers.   The report for fiscal year 2009 (FY2009) which covers October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009 was released recently.

The report is interesting because it covers partially the period when the economic crisis began.  Also, there are some interesting numbers.

Number of H-1B Petitions.  The number of H-1B petitions filed decreased 15 percent from 288,764 in FY2008 to 246,647 in FY2009.  This number includes all H-1B filings — new employment, amendment and transfers.   Although the report does not attribute the decrease in numbers, it is most likely due to the economic slowdown which started in 2008 and continued through 2009.

Number of H-1B Approvals.  The H-1B petitions approved decreased 22 percent from 276,252 in FY2008 to 214,271 in FY2009.  This does not mean that the rate of approval has changed by 22 percent – instead, the decrease of approvals is due to the decrease in filings.   In comparison, in FY2008, the rate of approval was 95 percent (based on calculating the number of FY2008 approvals out of number of FY2008 filings) and the FY2009 rate of approval was  87 percent, or 8 percentage points decrease.

Change of Status v. Consular Processing.  The breakdown of initial employment H-1B cases changed notably.  During FY2009, the number of aliens outside of the U.S. who applied for initial H-1B dropped by 40 percent from 56,000 in FY2008 to 33,000 in FY2009.   Initial H-1B applicants who were in the U.S. and applied for change of status from the U.S. remained steady at 53,000.

Country of Nationality.  Most H-1Bs were issued to Indian nationals – 48 percent, followed by China (10 percent), Canada (5 percent) and the Philippines (4 percent).

Age.  The report indicates that two-thirds of the H-1B petitions approved in FY2009 were for workers between the ages of 25 and 34.

Education.  Forty-one percent of the approved H-1B petitions were for workers with a bachelor’s degree, 40 percent had a master’s degree, 13 percent had a doctorate and 6 percent were for workers with a professional degree.

Salary.  The median salary of  beneficiaries of approved H-1B petitions increased from $60,000 in FY2008 to $64,000 in FY2009.