HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN FLORIDA

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

FLORIDA FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 1.4 STEM job openings were posted online in Florida for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Florida will need to fill 340,840 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: The federal government estimates Florida will be short 61,146 registered nurses (RN) by 2020, leaving 33 percent of the state’s RN positions unfilled.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN FLORIDA

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 19.4 percent of Florida’s population, but in 2009, more than half of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Florida’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are over-represented in the STEM workforce: In 2010, almost one out of every four STEM workers with an advanced degree in Florida were foreign-born.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 35.3 percent of physicians in Florida had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP FLORIDA’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 Florida between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 21,487 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 Jacksonville metropolitan area as many as 1,185 additional jobs and as much as $6.4 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.