HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA

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

CALIFORNIA 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 California for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: California will need to fill 967,510 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: The federal government estimates California will be short 120,695 registered nurses (RN) by 2020, leaving 45.8 percent of the state’s RN positions unfilled.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN CALIFORNIA

• Immigrants are over-represented in the STEM workforce: Immigrants are 27.2 percent of California’s population, but in 2010, more than one in three STEM workers with an advanced degree in California were foreign-born.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 24.4 percent of physicians in California had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

IMMIGRANTS INCREASINGLY POWER CALIFORNIA’S INNOVATION ECONOMY

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: In 2009, 38.3 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from California’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are inventing the products that will drive innovation over the coming decades: In 2011, the University of California system received almost 370 patents, more than any other university system in the country, and in FY 2010 they earned $104.4 million in patent licensure revenue. More than 76 percent of those patents had at least one foreign-born inventor, and 51 percent had at least one foreign-born student, postdoctoral fellow, or researcher, groups with no clear path to stay in the United States after graduation.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP CALIFORNIA’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 California between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 117,209 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 Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and San Diego metropolitan areas as many as 14,117 additional jobs and as much as $410.8 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.