Understand the H-1B stats - TOP US EMPLOYERS 2019
A discussion of the distribution of top US employers and a list of employers who hired 101+ people on H-1B visas.
In 2019, 11,916 employers received initial approvals 132,967 H-1B roles. Part of what is interesting about these approvals is their uneven distribution across firms. As you can see below, the most companies (7,425 or 62%) hired just 2-4 employees during the year.
Indeed, 94,5% of companies hire between 1 and 25 employees on an H-1B, which is equal to 11271 companies.
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As you will see, though, this only part of the picture.​ It starts to get more interesting after learning about how many people were hired by each of these firms.
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hiring range
# of firms at hiring range
Perhaps just as interesting - or even more so - is the total number of persons hired by these firms at these levels. For instance, while only nine firms saw over 1,000 initial approvals, their approvals numbered 15,543. In other words, these firms represented just under .08% of firms but also 11.6% of initial H-1B approvals.
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Even more interesting is that if you dig just a little bit deeper, you can see that 41,100 initial approvals (31%) were consolidated into just 115 companies that received a minimum of 101 approvals.
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This probably is not too surprising; the numbers show an intuitive story.
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Bigger companies hire more workers, including people on H-1B visas.
hiring range
# of initial approvals
So who are these companies?
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As shown by the list below, the companies that make the most hires on H-1Bs are indeed the biggest. Consider the top 5 companies and their size on a global scale as indicated by the Forbes Global 2000 list:
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Amazon, 22nd largest company in the world
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Google (now Alphabet), 13th largest company in the world
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Tata Consultancy, 375th largest company in the world
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Microsoft, 13th largest company in the world
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Cognizant Technical Solutions, 533st largest company in the world
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Beyond size, there are other communalities. Many of the largest companies are technology companies and/or offer consulting companies.
Which companies received over 101 initial approvals?
Try finding a company that is not a big tech or consulting company. They are there, but not many in the top 50.
#24 - AWS
Amazon-affiliated companies appear multiple times on our list.
#27, 28, 29
Deloitte & Touche, PWC, and Goldman Sachs.
Finance and accounting, but also consulting. Note that Deloitte also shows up earlier as Deloitte Consulting, LLP.
#44
PWC shows up again here, again showing a weakness within the data.
#50, #53, #64, #79, #81, #84, #85, #86 and more
Stanford University, University of Michigan, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin Madison
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Universities commonly make it onto the list; foreign professors and researchers contribute to the knowledge of the U.S. and world. As per section 214(g)(5)(A), an alien who is employed or has received an offer of employment from an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity is exempt from the H-1B cap.
#103
Memorial Sloan Kettering
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One of the world's leading cancer treatment centers. H-1B recipients save lives.