Sources
Every number on this site is tied to a primary source below: government data first, then established think-tank and news reporting. Where a figure is contested or dated, we say so. Corrections are welcome.
The cap, the scale, and the lottery
The 85,000 annual cap (65,000 + 20,000 advanced-degree) and program overview.
Registrations vs. selections by year, and the 2024 finding that 54% of entries were duplicate registrations.
The beneficiary-centric selection rule that cut duplicate registrations from 409k to 47k.
Who the visas go to
64% in computer/IT occupations; 71% of beneficiaries from India; $120k median compensation.
The last official 'stock' count: ~583,420 people in H-1B status as of Sept 30, 2019.
The top employers
Employer rankings from the USCIS Data Hub, separating new petitions from continuing employment.
Reporting on the employer mix of large tech firms and Indian IT outsourcing companies.
Wages
60% of certified H-1B jobs assigned to the two lowest wage tiers (14% Level 1, 46% Level 2), 2019.
The four-level prevailing-wage system and the percentile each level maps to.
$133,080 median annual wage for software developers, the U.S. benchmark (May 2024).
Tech layoffs
AI and employment
A ~13-16% relative decline in early-career employment in the most AI-exposed jobs, from ADP payroll data. Correlational.
Sundar Pichai on the AI-generated share of new code (Oct 2024); later raised past 30%.
Andy Jassy's June 2025 memo. Amazon is the largest H-1B petitioner in the country.
The green-card backlog
A note on honesty: the total H-1B population figure is an estimate: the last official count was 583,420 in 2019. Executive statements about AI productivity are self-reported. Wage figures are offered wages at filing, not audited total compensation. We flag these so the argument rests only on what the record can bear.