HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN DELAWARE
Date: April 10, 2015
Learn more about the need for high-skilled immigration reform at www.LetPJStay.com
DELAWARE FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE
- There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 3.8 STEM job openings were posted online in Delaware for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
- As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Delaware will need to fill 22,320 new STEM jobs by 2020.
- The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: The federal government estimates Delaware will be short 4,682 registered nurses (RN) by 2020, leaving 51.5 percent of the state’s RN positions unfilled.
IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN DELAWARE
- Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 8.6 percent of Delaware’s population, but in 2009, 53.8 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Delaware’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
- Immigrants are a growing percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, 25.4 percent of STEM workers with an advanced degree in Delaware were foreign-born – a 35.5 percent increase in their share of the STEM workforce 10 years earlier.
- Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 26.4 percent of physicians in Delaware had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.
HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP DELAWARE’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 Delaware between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 2,957 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 Wilmington metropolitan area as many as 3,067 additional jobs and as much as $31.3 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.
