US has 1 cr vacancies right now: How immigrants should look for jobs amid big tech layoffs? Expert’s take

Amid the buzz around more big tech layoffs in the United States, experts notify that there are ‘over 10 million vacancies’ in the country currently, and it is just about looking for them at the right places. 

“The labour shortage in the United States is a persistent problem,” Robert Webber, US Immigration Attorney, commented citing data released by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey.

The data showed, there are 10.3 million vacancies, i.e. an astounding 1.7 jobs available for every American worker looking for a job. 

What are the reasons for the perpetual labour shortage? 

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, had earlier commented that labor shortage seems attributed to 3 things – first is excess retirements, second is COVID deaths, and the third is a plunge in net immigration.

“The combination of a plunge in net immigration and a surge in deaths during the pandemic probably accounts for about 1-1/2 million missing workers,” Powell asserted. 

How to find the right kind of job in the US? 

Due to recent layoffs by high-profile companies like Twitter, Amazon and Facebook, many H-1B workers are currently unemployed, which created a buzz that in the coming months, it will be difficult to find jobs. 

Webber advises, “If you are hoping to immigrate to the US (or H1B visa holder), the first thing that you need to understand is there are a lot of jobs in the country but those jobs are not necessarily with big technology companies.”

Second, the F1 students and H-1B workers need to be a lot more savvy and look at other industries. IT and software developers are in every industry but there are still lots of jobs in healthcare, the energy sector, and agriculture, as a few examples.

“Healthcare is a particularly attractive sector as many employers are “exempt” from the H-1B cap (annual limit of H-1B work visas).”

Another smart approach he says is to consider going to university in Australia or Canada and becoming Australian or Canadian citizens. “There are special US work visas available for citizens of Australia (E-3 visas) and citizens of Canada (TN visas) and those are not available to citizens of India. But people who go to school in Australia or Canada and stay long enough to become citizens of those countries can qualify for these visas and then come to the US easily.”