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Comment by riazrizvi | Hacker News Reader

In 2023 there were 755,020 H1-B admittances. Why was it much easier to get a job in 2021? Because there were only 148,603 [1]. Notice that even though Republicans talked about immigration, neither party is talking about reducing H1-B filled roles. The kicker is if you’ve had a gap doing your own thing or because you were laid off and you apply for a job at a discount salary, you’re still not competitive against an H1-B worker because employers know you’d be able to trade up once you’ve been working for a few months.

[1] https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/h1b-visa...

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These numbers probably don't mean what you think they mean. Certainly, the number of H-1B holders in 2021 and 2023 is about the same.

An "admittance" is someone with a H-1B visa appearing a port of entry like an airport to enter the US. If a single H-1B holder goes on (say) 3 international trips in 1 year, that will count as 3 "admittances" in that year.

The reason why the number is so low in 2021 is that the US government had a COVID non-immigrant travel ban. People with H-1B visas couldn't re-enter the US from many countries e.g. most countries in Europe. Many people in H-1B status (like myself) simply didn't take international trips that year.

But if I bothered to look up what the words mean about complex administrative questions, I forfeit my right to be outraged!

Great point. The H-1B receipts total[1] is probably what most are looking for

2020: 427,200 2021: 398,300 2022: 474,300 2023: 386,600

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/reports/f...

Yes! Great find.

(Although, even these statistics are not as simple as they seem! E.g., when an H-1B status holder changes employer this counts as a new receipt even though the number of H-1B workers hasn't changed. In periods of time when there is lots of churn in the labor market, like in 2022, you would see higher receipt numbers just from the churn. It's complicated!)

Thank you all for clarifying. So 80k/year is the key number.

And for how long they stay and how many get green cards.

By law, the number of H1B visas issued per year is capped at 80k, and that's how many have been issued every year for the last twenty years.

"Admittance rates" measure how many H1B people travel internationally and then return to the USA. Unsurprisingly, in 2023, more people traveled internationally than in 2021, when almost all countries closed their borders.

Right, and while the fraudulent H1-B hires (taking jobs where there are qualified unemployed Americans who would like them) are taking jobs from Americans, the illegal immigrants, about to be deported, are not (even if we taxpayers are paying $500/night to put them up in NYC hotels etc).

I don't think Trump give a crap about helping American workers, anymore than his buddy Elon does - the anti-immigrant thing was just that.

I hope you aren't suggesting it is hypocritical to not oppose legal immigration when opposing illegal immigration.

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