The Economic Impact of H-2B Workers

 16102_LABR H2BReport_LR.pdf

Many American businesses could not function without the H-2B program. Small, medium-sized and large employers in every region of the country count on it to keep their businesses open and growing, and to create opportunities for U.S. workers.

Yet the program is under constant attack by critics, who all too often make a case based on rhetoric and hypothetical scenarios, not hard economic data.

This report uses original economic analyses to examine the true economic effects of the H-2B program.

Supplementing these core findings is testimony from employers who use the program and also several illustrative profiles – of an H-2B employer, an H-2B worker and a community that depends on an H-2B workforce. This anecdotal material demonstrates the many benefits of the program but also the frustrations of dealing with its bureaucratic and regulatory complexity.

My Comment

These are jobs, that no American would, even if they could work.  They are back breaking menial jobs, and we as Americans do not do enough for these part time workers. Housing, bathrooms for both sexes, food, wages, rest periods during long days to tedious wor.  Why they still come here and do it I do not understand, except that they need the work for money to help their families and live a decent life.......

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The h-2B program allows employers to bring low-skilled foreign workers into the United States to fill temporary and seasonal jobs in sectors other than agriculture. Large and small employers in every state and in a wide variety of industries turn to the program when they cannot hire enough U.S. workers. 

h-2B visa holders play a small role in the U.S. economy. The number of visas is capped at 66,000 per year, and h-2B workers account for less than one-tenth of one percent of total U.S. employment

Despite the small size of the program, many employers who use it say their businesses would have to downsize or close if h-2B workers were not available. And h-2B visas are essential to several regional seasonal industries that sustain the economy in their states: seafood processing on Maryland’s eastern Shore, restaurants and inns on Nantucket, and ski resorts in Colorado, among other businesses