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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Multiply the yearly grant rate by six and you get abiutnthe total number of H1Bs, so not quite a million.

But regardless, it’s not like all unemployed are competing with body shoppers, while the HN crowd probablybisnt either.

First of all, the annual number of H1Bs is over 85000: there are 65K general H1Bs, 20K for people who got Master's degree in the US and uncapped number for non-profits and other exempt orgs. And non-profit is not necessarily a shelter for orphaned kittens, NFL is one, for example.

Secondly - H1B can be extended indefinitely while the AOS process is pending, this is in the news right now since Trump's admin announced they are looking into ways to prevent this. The same news are saying over a million H1Bs holders will be affected if the admin succeeds.

Yeah it's different non intersecting sets. Also, if you add all the jobs created by companies started by H1bs, it's definitely more than a million.

Not many of us are against H1Bs in general, but it is easy to dislike the body shops because they don’t add much to the economy (not creating jobs).

Companies like Infosys, TCS, Accenture, Capgemini provide backoffice services for many Western business at a lower price point than what they could do themselves. That adds much to the economy.

The real leeches in this system are the consulting/placement shops.

Sure, it isn’t binary. Infosys is a good example of a mixture.

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