USCIS RELEASES REPORT ON H-1B WORKERS CHARACTERISTICS

USCIS just issued a report to Congress “Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers” for Fiscal Year 2012. Some interesting facts outlined in the report:
1) The number of H-1B petitions filed increased 15% from 267,654 in FY 2011 to 307,713 in FY 2012. Due no doubt to the economic recovery.
2) The number of H-1B petitions approved decreased 3 percent from 269,653 in FY 2011 to 262,569 in FY 2012. Due no doubt to increased scrutiny from USCIS on all H-1B petitions and increased RFEs even though USCIS issued memos not to issue needless RFEs. I suspect in percentages it is actually worse because FY2012 had substantially more filings, so denial rate is probably more than 7% higher overall compared with FY2011.
3) 72% of H-1B petitions approved in FY 2012 were for workers between the ages of 25 and 34.
4) 46% of H-1B petitions approved in FY 2012 were for workers with a bachelor’s degree, 41% had a master’s degree, 8% had a doctorate, and 4 percent were for workers with a professional degree.
5) 61% of H-1B petitions approved in FY 2012 were for workers in computer related occupations followed by engineering and architecture.
6) The median salary of beneficiaries of approved petitions remained at $70,000 for both FYs 2011 and 2012.
7) After the IT industry, the higher education industry commanded the most petitions. The good news is that the higher education positions are cap-exempt.
8) Healthcare workers represent about 5% of the total number of cases.
You can find the full report here.