Fifteen thousand additional H-2B visas for temporary non-agricultural workers will be issued for fiscal year 2017, bringing the total for the year to 81,000.
These visas are reserved for businesses that would suffer “irreparable harm,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. The statement from DHS says the department determined there weren’t enough qualified and willing U.S. workers available to fill the jobs.
Economist Rick Merritt said several of these jobs are filled locally.
“Well there’s a lot of resorts in Arizona that I know have some Eastern Europeans working in the hotels, doing waiter jobs, things of that nature," Merritt said.
Merritt said a big reason these jobs have been vacant for the past few years is that young Americans are going to school and volunteering so as to shore up their resume rather than take summer jobs.
