Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2008

New Research Points to Continued Shortage of Skilled Professionals and the Positive Impact of H-1B Visa Holders on U.S. Job Growth

National Foundation for American Policy Provides Factual Evidence Supporting Urgent Need for Access to Visas for Highly Educated Professionals

Washington D.C. – Compete America applauded today’s release of new research by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) providing solid evidence of the extensive quantity of high-skilled job openings in U.S. technology and defense industries.

In its analysis of job openings at all companies in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500, NFAP concluded that major U.S. technology companies currently average more than 470 high-skilled job openings each, while U.S. defense companies average 1,265 openings in skilled positions.

“Facts don’t lie – America’s innovation economy is in dire need of skilled professionals if we are to stay competitive and keep jobs in the United States,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America. “It will take more than a decade for the U.S. education system to produce the quantity of young students pursuing degrees in math, science and engineering that our economy demands.  Until then, we must rely on foreign-born talent, including many in our own colleges and universities, to fill vital positions in skilled industries, as well as health care and research institutions.”

In related research, NFAP also provided evidence that the hiring of skilled foreign professionals through the H-1B visa program has a positive impact on U.S. job growth.  The Foundation’s analysis found that for every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology companies showed an increase in employment of 5 workers. For technology firms with fewer than 5,000 employees, each H-1B position requested was associated with an increase in employment of 7.5 workers.

“The best stimulus for the U.S. economy would be to give our innovative companies the tools and talent they need to grow and create U.S. jobs.  This means reforming our system for highly educated, legal immigration,” Hoffman concluded.

Compete America supports legislation that would provide a permanent fix to the broken visa system for highly educated foreign professionals – including a market-based H-1B visa cap, a streamlined EB green card process, and an expedited path to permanent resident status for foreign-born masters and Ph.D. graduates from U.S. universities.

To download copies of each report, visit www.nfap.com.   For more information on how highly educated immigration benefits America, please visit www.competeamerica.org. 

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of corporations, educators, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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