New Report Confirms Demand for High-Skilled Foreign Workers Continues Despite COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Labor Market and Economy
Analysis by Envoy Global and New American Economy shows that smarter immigration policies could help the U.S. economy bounce back faster
CHICAGO and NEW YORK, June 10, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, Envoy Global and New American Economy (NAE) released a new report showing that despite the economic upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a shortage of highly skilled workers to meet the persistent demand of American employers. While many businesses are seeking to expand, the United States' outdated immigration system and continued travel restrictions may prolong and exacerbate the shortage of high-skilled workers, hindering a fast and successful economic recovery. Failure to enable employers to fill critical workforce gaps hampers their ability to fulfill their economic potential, stymieing economic growth nationwide. These findings support the argument that more responsive employment-based immigration policies may help the U.S. economy bounce back faster and more robustly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, How Has Demand in Sectors Dependent on Specialty Skills Changed Due to COVID-19? compares data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on the number of Labor Condition Applications (LCA) filed for H-1B specialty workers; Burning Glass Technologies' Labor Insights Database based on public job postings; Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); and U.S. Census data.
Key findings include:
- Despite the economic upheaval of the pandemic, there remains a shortage of highly skilled workers to meet the persistent demand of employers.
- Demand for computer-related workers is stable, and even growing. In fact, computer-related jobs made up 69.6% of all foreign labor requests in FY2020, a slight increase from FY2019 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Demand for computer-related occupations is growing and outpacing supply. In 2019, the unemployment rate for computer- and mathematics-related occupations was 2.3%. By 2020, it had only increased by 0.7 percentage points, to 3.0%. By March 2021, the unemployment rate was 1.9% – lower than it was before the pandemic.
- Employers' ability to fill these roles will be critical to America's long-term economic recovery. If businesses cannot find enough workers to fill technical and specialized roles that are often critical to their continued growth and innovation, U.S. companies may be hamstrung in their capacity to expand and operate efficiently.
"This report comes at a time when employers are in critical need of filling highly-skilled roles amid an ever-growing competitive labor market," said Andrew Lim, Director of Quantitative Research at NAE. "Our findings highlight the critical shortage of highly skilled workers to meet the persistent demand of employers in the U.S. – specifically in computer-related and professional services industries. Without foreign nationals to fill technical and specialized roles that are critical to companies' continued growth, the shortage could have a consequential impact on the country's long-term economic recovery."
"We know that foreign national talent plays an essential role in filling specialized occupations and decreasing the labor shortage across the U.S.," said Richard Burke, CEO at Envoy Global. "While many businesses have sought to expand their foreign national workforce, continued travel restrictions on top of an outdated immigration system may in fact prolong and exacerbate the shortage of high-skilled workers. Our research brief with NAE suggests that immediate and smarter policies around employment-based immigration is critical and needed among U.S. employers to source the talent they need to continually innovate, and for the U.S. to make a robust recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and future economic disruptions and crises."
To access the full report, please click here.
About Envoy Global
Founded in 1998, Envoy Global is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. By combining expert legal representation—for both inbound and non-U.S. immigration—and proprietary technology, Envoy empowers companies to acquire the best talent regardless of where they live, while simultaneously managing their entire global workforce and enabling employees to take advantage of business opportunities around the globe. Envoy is a 2019 honoree of the 18th Annual Chicago Innovation Awards, 20th Annual Illinois Technology Association (ITA) CityLIGHTS Awards, Corporate Immigration & Relocation Best Global Corporate Immigration Platform, Built In Chicago's 2019 100 Best Places To Work and 50 Best Mid-Sized Places To Work and ChicagoInno's Coolest Companies List. Envoy is affiliated with two law firms, Global Immigration Associates, P.C. (GIA), who provide immigration legal services to companies, and Corporate Immigration Partners (CIP), an elite group of immigration attorneys and legal professionals who provide personalized immigration services to companies.
Website, technology platform and administrative services are provided by Envoy Global Inc., a Delaware corporation. Legal services are provided by Envoy-affiliated attorneys. Please visit envoyglobal.com for more information or if interested in exploring an affiliation with Envoy.
About New American Economy
New American Economy (NAE) is a bipartisan research and policy organization that has as its mission to better inform the intellectual and political debate around immigration in the United States, with a particular focus on immigrants' role in the U.S. economy. Since its creation in 2010, NAE has published hundreds of reports, white papers, and interactive data visualizations, often in partnership with other leading research and policy institutions and organizations. NAE's research is widely cited by national news outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Vox, NPR, and Reuters among others. The findings from NAE's research also appear often in legal briefs, including in several Supreme Court cases, and in supporting documents to pieces of legislation at federal, state, and local levels of government in the United States.
Media Contact
Katie Butler, Walker Sands, for Envoy Global, 614-507-5512, [email protected]
Jeff Salzgeber, New American Economy, 512-743-2659, [email protected]
SOURCE Envoy Global
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