Skico looks local after US work visa reductions
September 24 2009 by Matt Jones
Foggy future for US visa holders
The US government issued a reduction in the number of H2B working visas issued to employers. Skico is feeling the effects strongly with many of its ski instructors being from overseas.
Prior to the recession the US government would issue 66,000 H2B visas to employers each year. With this US visa the employer could then look abroad for foreign talent to fill the positions. This year there have been national cuts to the number of H2B visas issued.
This cut has forced Skico to turn to the local population in search of new ski instructors, ideally ones who can speak the foreign language of the many international visitors that come to ski at Aspen.
Skico used approximately 400 H2B work visas during the 2007-2008 ski season. This number fell dramatically to 200 last year. 129 of those were used for ski instructors. Skico plan to reduce the number of foreign ski instructors on an American visa to just 57 this season.
Skico are confident they will be able to fill the positions. They plan on employing people full time rather than part time, which will reduce the number of workers overall but allow for there to be no pay cuts.
Jim Laing, vice president of human resources at Skico said: “We expect we're going to be overwhelmed with applications. We're already starting to see it.” He went on to say: “We feel we can satisfy [most of] our demand domestically.”
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