H1B Visa Demand Slips: What Is The Impact on Tech Talent

Many tech firms are facing an uncertain future and doing what comes natural: wait and see. The U.S. government reported that it received 199,000 H-1B visa petitions for the upcoming 2018 fiscal year -- 37,000 less than in 2016.

Many firms are clearly unclear about how the Trump administration will look at firms utilizing H-1B visas, but the uncertainty is enough to turn around what had been an upward trend year after year.

As the unemployment rate for many IT jobs nears 0%, firms will increasingly turn toward agencies to assemble teams of IT contractors on short and long-term projects.

This strategy can help fill in a gap created by short term uncertainty, but can also help facilitate a strategy that exploits a pool of contractors immediately available.