Economic Profile: Bay Area Leads California in H1-B Visas

Foreign workers and immigrants have always been significant contributors to the Bay Area’s and California’s economies. And the Bay Area Council has always been a strong advocate of expanding the H-1B visa program for high-skilled foreign workers. New research by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute shows just how important these workers are in meeting the needs of California employers. As part of its new Economic Profile, the Economic Institute found that California has the most H-1B recipients of any state in the nation, with new and continuing approvals across the state in FY 2019 totaling over 80,000. 

Out of the top 20 California cities in terms of number of H-1B visas, 14 are in the Bay Area. Together these 14 Bay Area cities outpaced the state of Texas, which ranks second in the nation in terms of H-1B approvals. These 14 Bay Area cities had over 58,000 H-1B visa approvals in FY 2019 compared to 43,000 across all of Texas. The Bay Area Council recently joined with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a lawsuit seeking to reverse new Trump Administration restrictions on H-1B visas.

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute has released another chapter in its series for the recently launched Bay Area Council Economic Profile, this time looking at whether or not the region will become more globalized or localized as a result of COVID-19.