Banks still recruiting foreigners to work in the US
February 03 2009 by Robbie Ragless
A review from the Associated Press has found that, despite the economic slump, banks were recruiting foreign workers to highly paid jobs to work in the US.
A total of 21,800 foreign US work permits were requested for immigrant workers over the past six years from the 12 banks that received the largest rescue packages, totaling $15 billion.
In 2008, as the slump became more severe, the number of H-1B visas sought by the banks increased by almost a third to 4,163 in 2008 budget year, from just 3,258 the year before.
Each year around 85,000 H-1B visas are granted and it is unclear how many of these workers actually went to the banks.
The average salary of highly skilled immigrants coming to work in America for the banks is $90,721. This is despite hiring younger immigrants with lower expectations and using the lower end of government pay scales when working out salaries.
The news has angered some Americans who think the banks should be employing American citizens to these jobs. Other critics claim that the argument that there are shortages of workers in key areas like banking is not true and that the real reason for paying foreigners to work in the US is that their cost of labour is significantly cheaper than domestic labour.
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