H1Bs in College Station, Texas? One Data Set, Two Views
A widely cited report on H1B workers that Pew Research recently published makes a very counter-intuitive claim that more H1B visas are awarded to East Coast and Texas companies than they are to Silicon Valley companies. But when looking at publicly available data, two very different pictures emerge depending on what one asks.
When sorting H1B requests by "worksite city," the city where the H1B employees would show up to daily work, Silicon Valley cities and counties such as Santa Clara clearly appear at the top of a list of counties requesting the most H1B visas.
However when sorting H1B requests by "employer city," possibly the company's headquarters, Texas and the Northeast cities appear to request more H1B visas than all other metropolitan regions.
Sections and Charts Below:
I. Pew Report: H1B Visas Granted in 2010-2016 Surprisingly Went to Texas and Northeast
II. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Employer City" Shows Texas and Northeast at Top
III. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Worksite City" Shows Silicon Valley at Top
I. Pew Report: H1B Visas Granted 2010-2016 Surprisingly Went to Texas and Northeast
First, here's what Pew said in a recently-published report widely cited in newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News and East Bay Times:
The data on which H1Bs were awarded is hard to verify since Pew obtained it through a public records request and did not provide the source files in their public report.
But the picture changes when we look at a similar set of data from similar year. The companies which *requested* H1B visas in 2017 is publicly available.
Programmer R. Davis fed publicly available data on which companies applied for H1B visas in 2017 through an R app he wrote at labor.shinyapps.io. The data sources are cited at the bottom of this post and the Labor ShinyApp site.
II. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Employer City" Shows Texas and Northeast at Top
When sorting by "Employer City" (presumably the company headquarters,) the most-requested visas in 2017 data places a company in Philadephia, Pennsylvania first, and a company in College Station, Texas second. A company in Sunnyvale, California finishes distant third:
Chart hyperlinked to data breakdown of top 100 rows.
III. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Worksite City" Shows Silicon Valley at Top
However when looking at most-requested H1B visas sorted by "WORKSITE" where the employee will work (not company headquarters,) no company in College Station, Texas makes the top 100 list of H1B visa requesters:
Pew did not state whether "WORKSITE" city or "EMPLOYER" city was used in their report. But the publicly available data on 2017 H1B requests sorts Texas and the Northeast companies higher than Silicon Valley companies when looking at "EMPLOYER" city, rather than the worksite city. And "worksite" city sounds like the true representation for where H1B employees would report to work every day.
Sources used by Labor R Shiny App:
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by "Employer City" (top 16 of 100):
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by employee "Worksite City" (top 16 of 100):
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by employee "Worksite County" (top 16 of 100 shown here):
When sorting H1B requests by "worksite city," the city where the H1B employees would show up to daily work, Silicon Valley cities and counties such as Santa Clara clearly appear at the top of a list of counties requesting the most H1B visas.
However when sorting H1B requests by "employer city," possibly the company's headquarters, Texas and the Northeast cities appear to request more H1B visas than all other metropolitan regions.
Sections and Charts Below:
I. Pew Report: H1B Visas Granted in 2010-2016 Surprisingly Went to Texas and Northeast
II. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Employer City" Shows Texas and Northeast at Top
III. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Worksite City" Shows Silicon Valley at Top
I. Pew Report: H1B Visas Granted 2010-2016 Surprisingly Went to Texas and Northeast
First, here's what Pew said in a recently-published report widely cited in newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News and East Bay Times:
The employment of high-skilled foreign workers with H-1B visas centered in large East Coast metropolitan areas from fiscal years 2010 to 2016. These foreign workers also made up a significant part of the workforces in several Texas metro areas, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of previously unpublished metro-level government data of H-1B visa approvals obtained through a public records request.labor.
But the picture changes when we look at a similar set of data from similar year. The companies which *requested* H1B visas in 2017 is publicly available.
Programmer R. Davis fed publicly available data on which companies applied for H1B visas in 2017 through an R app he wrote at labor.shinyapps.io. The data sources are cited at the bottom of this post and the Labor ShinyApp site.
II. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Employer City" Shows Texas and Northeast at Top
When sorting by "Employer City" (presumably the company headquarters,) the most-requested visas in 2017 data places a company in Philadephia, Pennsylvania first, and a company in College Station, Texas second. A company in Sunnyvale, California finishes distant third:
Chart hyperlinked to data breakdown of top 100 rows.
III. Sorting 2017 H1B Requests by "Worksite City" Shows Silicon Valley at Top
However when looking at most-requested H1B visas sorted by "WORKSITE" where the employee will work (not company headquarters,) no company in College Station, Texas makes the top 100 list of H1B visa requesters:
Pew did not state whether "WORKSITE" city or "EMPLOYER" city was used in their report. But the publicly available data on 2017 H1B requests sorts Texas and the Northeast companies higher than Silicon Valley companies when looking at "EMPLOYER" city, rather than the worksite city. And "worksite" city sounds like the true representation for where H1B employees would report to work every day.
Sources used by Labor R Shiny App:
- https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/PerformanceData/2017/H-1B_Disclosure_Data_FY17.xlsx
- linked to at https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/performancedata.cfm.
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by "Employer City" (top 16 of 100):
EMPLOYER_CITY EMPLOYER_STATE TOTAL_WORKERS 1: PHILADELPHIA PA 131266 2: NEW YORK NY 53282 3: COLLEGE STATION TX 51026 4: SUNNYVALE CA 46649 5: PLANO TX 35859 6: CHICAGO IL 35352 7: SAN JOSE CA 34811 8: SANTA CLARA CA 30043 9: CUPERTINO CA 27843 10: ROCKVILLE MD 19830 11: TAMPA FL 18986 12: SAN DIEGO CA 18468 13: SAN FRANCISCO CA 16267 14: MOUNTAIN VIEW CA 15649 15: SEATTLE WA 15205 16: EDISON NJ 13561
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by employee "Worksite City" (top 16 of 100):
WORKSITE_CITY WORKSITE_STATE TOTAL_WORKERS 1: NEW YORK NY 55409 2: SAN JOSE CA 34263 3: SAN FRANCISCO CA 29286 4: CHICAGO IL 24694 5: SANTA CLARA CA 21415 6: HOUSTON TX 20745 7: CUPERTINO CA 20155 8: ATLANTA GA 20110 9: AUSTIN TX 20054 10: PHILADELPHIA PA 18648 11: SEATTLE WA 18335 12: SAN DIEGO CA 18031 13: DALLAS TX 14819 14: REDMOND WA 13553 15: SUNNYVALE CA 12805 16: IRVING TX 12022
Data that Labor R Shiny App sorted by employee "Worksite County" (top 16 of 100 shown here):
WORKSITE_COUNTY WORKSITE_STATE TOTAL_WORKERS 1: SANTA CLARA CA 113039 2: NEW YORK NY 55774 3: KING WA 43466 4: DALLAS TX 32756 5: COOK IL 31924 6: SAN FRANCISCO CA 28720 7: LOS ANGELES CA 25870 8: FULTON GA 22022 9: HARRIS TX 21623 10: SAN DIEGO CA 19868 11: TRAVIS TX 18799 12: PHILADELPHIA PA 18204 13: MIDDLESEX MA 15772 14: SAN MATEO CA 15482 15: FAIRFAX VA 13695 16: COLLIN TX 13012
