90 Miles From Tyranny : Goldman Sachs: Almost One Million H-1B Foreign Workers Hold University-Level Jobs Here

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Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Goldman Sachs: Almost One Million H-1B Foreign Workers Hold University-Level Jobs Here

Goldman Sachs estimates that almost one million foreign H-1B contract workers are now employed in college-level jobs throughout the United States, even though many media outlets routinely say the federal government approves only 85,000 H-1B visas per year.

Goldman’s February estimate of the huge H-1B population also ignores multiple other visa programs which invite foreign graduates to work in the United States. These other temporary work visas are used to employ an additional 470,000 foreign college graduates in the United States, according to a study released on March 7 by the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute.

The EPI study, titled “Temporary foreign workers by the numbers,” says U.S. companies employ roughly 470,000 foreign professionals via the little-known O, L, J, OPT, and TN visas.

The EPI study estimates that the H-1B population at a much lower level of only 460,000 employees, partly because EPI says many H-1B workers quickly get permanent green cards, which converts them into legal residents, not contract workers.

If Goldman’s estimate of almost one million H-1Bs is combined with the EPI’s estimate of various other skilled white-collar visa programs, then the government data shows that U.S. companies employ roughly 1.4 million lower-wage college-graduate temporary workers in the United States. The imported workers are not immigrants, citizens, legal residents or green card holders, but are supposed to return home after several years.

Companies have used them to fill enough outsourced jobs to fully employ nearly all Americans who graduated from college with skilled degrees in 2015 and 2016. This population of white-collar temporary workers has pushed many established U.S. workers out of jobs, partly because none of the visa programs require that Americans be hired before foreigners.

“I’m working at one of the Home Depot [hardware store] … there’s a lot of people in my position,” said Les, a former New York City technology worker for Disney, Pearson publishing, and other U.S. companies. He was pushed out of the business when...Read More HERE

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