In 2020, compared to Indian firms, American firms continued to recruit a higher share of H1-B workers. This has been the case since 2016 following the election of Donald Trump. Though the bulk of H1-B beneficiaries continues to be from India, in the last two years there has been a marginal drop in their share with firms preferring Chinese workers a little more.
Petitions down
Nearly 32,000 fewer H1-B petitions (bar, left axis) were filed between April and June 2020 compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. However, the approval % (line, right axis) reached the highest since 2017.
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Also read: Trump signs executive order against hiring H1B visa holders for federal contracts
Edged out
The list of the top 10 firms which received the most work certifications for H1-B visas in 2020 include four new entrants: three from the U.S. (Oracle, Google and NVIDIA) and just one from India (Zensar).
Other U.S. firms such as Amazon, Qualcomm, CTS and Deloitte continued to corner a significant share of work certifications. Indian firms continued to recruit H1-B workers, but the numbers pale in comparison to their hirings before 2016. The following table lists the number of certifications issued.
Share drops
Indians continue to be the largest contingent among H1-B beneficiaries, but their share has started to drop after peaking in 2017 while the share of Chinese and other beneficiaries has slightly increased.
Also read: Editorial | More of the same: On Trump's signing of order against hiring H1B visa holders
