U.S. Businesses Loading Up on Foreign Workers

American companies continued to hire foreign laborers in 2017 to work in landscaping, hotel and recreation jobs, but a LifeZette analysis of wage data finds little evidence of a U.S. worker shortage.

According to preliminary data recently released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials, the federal government certified requests for 117,716 positions, a slight decrease from the previous fiscal year but near historic highs. While the number of certifications declined, the number of applications rose, suggesting that President Donald Trump’s administration might be scrutinizing them more closely.

It was not enough to affect the actual number of visas, however. From the certifications, the government awarded up to 66,000 H-2B visas for low-skill, non-agriculture temporary jobs.

The Department of Homeland Security, at the behest of Congress, raised the annual cap earlier this year by an additional 15,000 workers.

Congress authorized a one-time raise in the cap through a rider on a spending bill, in response to complaints from businesses that they could not find workers to fill critical positions. Under classic economic theory, a shortage of workers should result in rising wages as companies compete for a scarce resource.

But that is not the case for the occupations where businesses most commonly request H-2B visas. By far, the most popular occupation is landscaping and groundskeeping, for which USCIS certified 52,918 applications — up 15 percent from the previous year. Controlling for inflation, the average hourly wage for all landscaping and groundskeeping workers in the United States increased by 4.3 percent from 2006 to 2016.

Of the top-10 most popular H-2B occupations, only two saw U.S. wages grow by more than the inflation-adjusted 6.4 percent increase for all workers in the United States. Cooks actually lost ground during that time.

[lz_table title=”Wages and Guest Workers” source=”Bureau of Labor Statistics”]Change in wages in 10 most popular H-2B occupations
|Occupations,2006-16*
Landscapers/Groundskeepers,4.3%
Maids,7.1%
Forest & Conservation,5.3%
Amusement & Recreation,5.5%
Meat/Poultry/Fish,.88%
Construction helpers,4.6%
Construct. laborers,6.3%
Cooks,-2.7%
Waiters & Waitresses,19.1%
Counter Attendants,5.9%
|
All U.S. Workers,6.4%
|
*2016 figures adjusted for inflation
[/lz_table]

“That is probably the most accurate way to measure if there is a shortage or a glut of any commodity,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors restrictions on the guest worker program.

Preston Huennekens, a researcher at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said some of the occupations certified by the government would appear not to fit the stereotypical “jobs Americans won’t do.” While the average hourly wage offered to H-2B workers was $13.06 an hour in fiscal year 2017, some positions paid significantly more.

Huennekens said some positions offered more than $20 an hour for jobs that required no more than high school degrees.

“There really are some jobs that probably should be going to Americans,” he said.

Other H-2B jobs, Huennekens said, appear to be an abuse of the intent of the guest worker program. He pointed to a company that offered $53 an hour for a systems programmer. He said the job description suggests the position would be more appropriate for the guest-worker visa program for high-skilled workers.

“That’s not really a job that should be certified through the H-2B program,” he said.

Huennekens said there is a legitimate rationale for temporary guest workers from abroad to address actual shortages in certain occupations and certain geographic locations. He offered an example of a large fish processing facility in Alaska that has a great need for workers during the season but has a relatively small native-born American population from which to draw.

But without safeguards, Huennekens said, the danger is that the H-2B program can morph into a tool for companies to replace American workers with cheaper foreign laborers.

One place to examine possible reforms is the process by which the visas are awarded, Huennekens said. Businesses must demonstrate a need for workers and then advertise in two different venues for American workers. Huennekens said that process is difficult to evaluate because of a lack of data.

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“I really do think the government should be more transparent in how they certify these positions,” he said.

Mehlman agreed guest workers might be needed in some cases. He said that for the most part, though, companies should make a greater effort to recruit, hire and train Americans — even if it means paying more.

“We know that the workers are out there,” he said. “For whatever reason, employers are claiming they can’t find them. That would indicate that more needs to be done.”