HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN ARIZONA

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

ARIZONA FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 1.7 STEM job openings were posted online in Arizona for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Arizona will need to fill 126,780 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: The federal government estimates Arizona will be short 21,739 registered nurses (RN) by 2020, leaving 39.2 percent of the state’s RN positions unfilled.
• Arizona’s healthcare industry fairs poorly when compared to other states: Arizona ranks 33^rd in the United States when it comes to the number of doctors per capita.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN ARIZONA

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 13.4 percent of Arizona’s population, but in 2009, 50.2 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Arizona’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are a significant percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, more than one in every eight STEM workers with an advanced degree in Arizona were foreign-born.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 22.9 percent of physicians in Arizona had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP ARIZONA’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 Arizona between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 6,120 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 Phoenix metropolitan area as many as 1,921 additional jobs and as much as $14.5 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.