- Immigration
Breaking down the educational attainment, fields of employment, and demographic characteristics of the H-1B workforce, this Data Brief provides a clear picture of H-1B visa holders' training and offers insight into how they contribute to the US economy.
The H-1B is the main US work visa for college-educated foreign professionals. Analysis of H-1B petitions approved between FY21-24 reveals a group of workers that differs from the US working-age population in many respects.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- 58% hold a graduate degree, compared to 14% of the US native-born and 15% of foreign-born populations; virtually all hold at least a bachelor's.
- US graduate school is the pipeline: 71% of master's-and-higher petitions went to people already here on a student visa, while 74% of bachelor's-only petitions went to people hired from abroad.
- 70% studied computing or engineering — computer science alone accounted for 16.6% of the group.
- The work mirrors the training: 64% of petitions come from employers in a single sector of the economy: professional, scientific and technical services.
- Two-thirds were born in India (67%).
- 71% are aged 25–34 — three times the share of the US working-age population in that age bracket (23%).
