HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN OHIO

Learn more about the need for high-skilled immigration reform at www.LetPJStay.com

OHIO FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 2.3 STEM job openings were posted online in Ohio for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Ohio will need to fill 248,850 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: Researchers estimate Ohio will be short 3,630 registered nurses by 2030.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN OHIO

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 3.9 percent of Ohio’s population, but in 2009, almost half of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Ohio’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are a growing percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, one in every eight STEM workers with an advanced degree in Ohio was foreign-born – a percentage that has grown in the last decade.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 25.1 percent of physicians in Ohio had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP OHIO’S COMPANIES COMPETE AND CREATE AMERICAN JOBS

• High-skilled visa holders create jobs for U.S.-born workers: The new H-1B visas awarded to Ohio between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 11,855 new jobs for U.S.-born workers in the state by 2020.
• Our visa system is costing jobs and revenue: Firm-level data from the 2007 and 2008 H-1B lotteries shows that the H-1B caps from those two years alone cost U.S.-born tech workers in the Columbus metropolitan area as many as 2,298 additional jobs and as much as $20.1 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010. Akron, Ohio suffered as well – it experienced the 17^th largest H-1B shock in the nation during the 2007 to 2008 period.