H-1B visa holders do not adversely affect US workers: Report

H-1B visa holders do not adversely affect US workers, a new research said on Tuesday, suggesting that the presence of the workforce holding such visas boosts employment among other workers in an occupation.

The National Foundation for American Policy said that the findings of its new research should give pause to policymakers considering imposing additional restrictions on the H-1B program.

There is little reason to think doing so will help American workers, it said in its latest research.

H-1B visa holders do not adversely affect US workers, according to new research. On the contrary, the evidence points to the presence of H-1B visa holders being associated with lower unemployment rates and faster earnings growth among college graduates, including recent college graduates, the report said.

Further, the results suggest that, if anything, being in a field with more H-1B visa holders makes it more likely that US-born young college graduates work in a job closely related to their college major, it said.

The study uses data from 2005 to 2018 to examine how the number of approved petitions to hire H-1B visa holders as a share of college graduates within each of 22 occupations affects the unemployment rate and earnings growth rate in those occupations.

An increase in the share of workers with an H-1B visa within an occupation, on average, reduces the unemployment rate in that occupation, the report said.

The results indicate that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of workers with an H-1B visa in an occupation reduces the unemployment rate by about 0.2 percentage points.

The findings suggest the presence of H-1B visa holders boosts employment among other workers in an occupation. The results provide no evidence that the H-1B program has an adverse impact on labour market opportunities for US workers, it added.

According to the report, while critics often allege that H-1B visas reduce wages or suppress wage growth, this finding on the opposite is consistent with research showing that H-1B visa holders earn at least as much as similar US workers, if not more.

The results further indicate H-1B visa holders do not adversely affect US-born college graduates during the early years of their careers. Having more approved total or initial H-1B petitions, on average, reduces the unemployment rate within a major-occupation for recent graduates.

It provides no evidence that recent college graduates have worse labour market outcomes if there are more H-1B visa holders in jobs closely related to their college major, the report said.

Noting that the results of the research indicate that H-1B visa holders do not adversely affect US workers, the report said that the H-1B program is small relative to the size of the college-graduate workforce, likely accounting for at most two per cent of highly educated US workers.

H-1B visa holders are concentrated in computer-related occupations but account for only a small share of workers in information technology (IT) jobs.

Despite the H-1B program's small scale, the visa category is important to the US economy and to employers that use it to fill gaps in their workforce.

The presence of H-1B visa holders increases innovation, productivity and profits at H-1B employers and boosts total productivity and innovation in the United States.