Interactive analysis of H-1B visa usage, outsourcing trends, and labor market impact — from official USCIS, DOL, and BLS data.
▲ Anchored to Year 2000: peak U.S. labor force participation (67.3%)
Both peaked around 2000 and never recovered. The participation rate fell 5 points — millions left the workforce. Source: BLS, FRED.
As U.S. manufacturing shed millions of jobs, India's IT industry grew from $6B to $300B. Sources: BLS/FRED, NASSCOM.
USD billions. Source: NASSCOM.
GCC count and employees. Source: NASSCOM, Zinnov.
India holds 55% of the global outsourcing market.
Estimated employees in India. ■ Orange = Indian-HQ IT firms | ■ Blue = U.S.-HQ companies. Sources: NASSCOM, company annual reports, press estimates.
Early 2000s = call centers. Today = engineering, finance, legal, AI.
India's share grew from ~40% (2001) to ~75% by 2020, peaking at ~80% in 2016. Source: USCIS, DHS.
Orange = Indian-HQ IT firms. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
39.7% of all cumulative approvals among top 100.
Cognizant leads with 207,652 cumulative approvals (FY2009–2026). These 10 Indian-HQ IT firms alone account for 719,696 approvals — 39.7% of the top 100 employers. Many operate multiple U.S. entities. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
Single-year receipts (not cumulative). 25,328 approvals across the top 100 national H-1B employers. Amazon now leads at 2,008 — 3.8× larger than any Indian IT outsourcer in a single year, reflecting the post-2020 shift from pure outsourcer dominance toward U.S. big-tech in-housing.
Color-coded by category: ■ U.S. Big Tech • ■ Indian IT Outsourcer • ■ Finance • ■ Consulting/Big 4 • ■ Other. Fidelity (MA-HQ) at #17 nationally. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub FY2026.
U.S. Big Tech alone: 36.5%. Combined with Indian IT outsourcers (19.9%), tech-sector H-1B demand = 56.4% of top 100 petitioners.
TCS (1,518) + Infosys (1,139) + Cognizant (980) = 3,637 approvals from 3 firms. The full 8-firm Indian IT block: 5,028. Source: USCIS.
Texas leads (755K), NJ second (651K). CA excluded (incomplete download). Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, 844,054 filings FY2009–2026.
Denials spiked to 61K under Trump-era scrutiny (FY2019), then collapsed to 7K by FY2024. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
Peaked at 19,932 (FY2019). Denials spiked during "Buy American, Hire American." Source: USCIS.
Professional services dominates at 115K. Source: USCIS.
Boston alone accounts for 89,305 approvals (36.4% of MA total). Cambridge second at 27,399. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
■ Orange = IT outsourcing/staffing firms (place workers at client sites) | ■ Blue = Direct employers (hire for their own workforce). Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
Consolidated by parent system, ranked by worksite (jobs physically in MA) — not employer headquarters. Mass General Brigham is #1 by a wide margin (MGH + Brigham + McLean + Mass Eye & Ear + Spaulding + MGPO combined). Source: DOL OFLC LCA Disclosure Data, deduplicated by case number.
Mass General Brigham has been the #1–2 MA H-1B filer every year for 17 years. The Indian-IT wave (Wipro, Cognizant, Infosys, TCS…) surged then receded; Amazon rose after 2018. Source: DOL OFLC LCA Disclosure Data.
Peaked at 28.5% (FY2019), declined to ~10% after scrutiny.
"Change of Employer" tripled from FY09 to FY22.
NAICS Code 54 — includes software consulting, management consulting, R&D, accounting, and architecture firms. This is MA’s dominant H-1B industry at 46.9% of all approvals. Peaked at 10,159 (FY2019). Source: USCIS.
Fresh data from the DOL Foreign Labor Certification database — FY2026 year-to-date, covering every decision from Oct 1, 2025 through Jun 30, 2026 (the first three quarters). 15,310 MA H-1B LCAs decided across 3,923 unique employers — 90% certified, 0.7% denied, median offered wage $124,250. The pace accelerates each quarter: 2,788 (Q1) → 4,118 (Q2) → 8,404 (Q3, the annual H-1B cap-filing surge). Paired with USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub FY2026 receipts.
■ Orange = Consulting/Outsourcing | ■ Blue = Direct employer. Fidelity Technology Group leads with 368 FY2026 approvals — 1.3× the #2 filer (Randstad Digital, 287). Counts new-employment plus change-of-employer approvals (workers newly placed at the employer; excludes renewals). Mass General Brigham, consolidated across its many legal entities, ranks #5 (210). Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, FY2026.
Level II (Qualified) dominates at 36%, but Level III+IV combine for 38%—skewing senior vs. national average. Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Level I entry: $88.0K. Level IV expert: $171.8K. The gap between offered and prevailing wages widens at higher levels. Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Software Developers alone: 2,988 filings (20% of all MA LCAs) — the single largest occupation, followed by Data Scientists (785) and Software QA (466). Biotech/medical-science roles (Medical Scientists, Biochemists, Molecular Biologists) together add ~7%. Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Bars = LCA count, line = median offered wage. Boston dominates volume (5,330, $125K median); Burlington ($141K) and North Reading ($149K) skew high on senior tech roles. Worcester ($92.9K) is an outlier — academia-heavy and lower wage. Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Prof/Sci/Tech (NAICS 54) still ~37%. Healthcare and Education together: 20%. Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Among 2,591 MA software-dev LCAs: 17% are entry-level (I); 43% sit at Levels III–IV. Source: DOL LCA FY26 Q3.
2,095 biotech/pharma LCAs — Cambridge (707) and Boston (548) together host 60% of the state's biotech H-1B demand. Waltham, Watertown, and Lexington round out the top 5. Source: DOL LCA FY26 Q3, NAICS 3254 (Pharma Mfg) + 5417 (R&D Sciences).
Massachusetts universities are a major H-1B sponsor: Harvard leads with 247 filings, MIT 171, and Trustees of Boston U 109 — the ten largest together account for 896 LCAs. Academia roles cluster at Level I–II due to postdoc/research appointments. Source: DOL LCA FY26 Q3.
Much of Massachusetts’ H-1B floor is low-wage care and human-services work — but the state’s largest big-tech case looks the opposite. Across FY2026 to date (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026), Amazon’s Boston entities (Amazon.com Services, AWS, Amazon Development Center, Amazon Data Services) filed 294 certified LCAs, overwhelmingly six-figure software-engineering roles. Median role-average offered wage: $157,600 — 27% above the statewide $124,250 median. The well-paid jobs, filled on H-1B.
■ Cyan = role avg ≥ $150K | ■ Blue = below $150K. Software Development Engineer (all levels) is the dominant family — 160 of 294 filings (54%). Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
85% of Amazon’s Boston filings offer $130K or more; only 14 fall below $100K (entry data-associate and support roles). Source: DOL LCA FY2026 Q3.
Every MA H-1B application names the law firm that prepared it. Ranking those preparers — and cross-referencing the political money — tests the “H-1B mill” headlines against what Massachusetts’ own data actually shows.
The high-volume preparers are mainstream corporate immigration firms filing for brand-name direct employers (MathWorks, Vertex, Fidelity, Google, State Street) — not obscure shops filing for shells. Source: DOL LCA FY2026, MA worksite, attorney field.
A mill = an obscure firm filing for many tiny staffing shops at entry wages. In Massachusetts the opposite holds: software H-1B is 84% Level II or higher; the Level-I concentration is at hospitals & universities (residents, postdocs, adjuncts, where entry wage is normal); IT-staffing “bodyshops” are only ~4% of filings; and no high-volume firm serves mostly bodyshops (max ~11%).
What this data cannot see: the H-1B petition (USCIS I-129) and lottery-registration fraud — the actual enforcement story — live in USCIS data that is not public at case level. High filing volume is not proof of fraud.
H-1B is a federal program — only Congress, DOL and USCIS set the rules. The money that actually shapes the law is federal lobbying. Massachusetts state campaign donations are a separate political-footprint signal, not H-1B leverage.
Disclosed 2025 spend on filings that explicitly lobby immigration / H-1B. The heavy hitters are the IT-outsourcing firms (Cognizant, Infosys, TCS) and the Compete America employer coalition — the same category that is only ~4% of MA filings. Microsoft also lobbies H-1B; MA’s marquee users (Fidelity, MathWorks, Amazon, Google) do not — they free-ride on it. Cognizant bar is H1 in-house (a floor). Source: U.S. Senate LDA.
Total contributions to Massachusetts state/local committees from each employer’s workforce. Big MA employers fund Beacon Hill broadly (Baker, Patrick, Healey, Wu…) — a general political footprint, not H-1B influence, since a state donation can’t move a federal program. Immigration law firms barely register. Source: MA OCPF.
The one H-1B lobbyist with a federal PAC, Cognizant, contributed to 34 members of Congress in the 2024 cycle — $0 to any of Massachusetts’ eleven House & Senate members (that is its complete recipient list). Infosys and TCS have no U.S. PAC at all — they lobby only through hired firms. The big-tech PACs (Microsoft, Amazon) give broadly to party committees and swing seats, but no MA-delegation member appears among their top recipients. Several MA members (Warren, Markey, Pressley, McGovern) have publicly refused corporate PAC money, and the safe-seat delegation runs on small-dollar funding.
Takeaway: the money shaping H-1B is federal lobbying — not campaign cash to Massachusetts’ delegation. The pressure is applied in Washington, aimed at swing votes and leadership elsewhere. Source: U.S. FEC, 2024-cycle disbursements.
USCIS shows who petitions. The DOL's LCA data reveals what jobs and what wages. 7,629 MA applications analyzed (FY2020 & FY2024). Source: DOL Foreign Labor Certification LCA Disclosure Data.
Level I = entry (lowest 17th percentile). Nearly 1 in 5 MA H-1B positions are entry-level — paying 36% below median. Source: DOL LCA Disclosure Data.
Direct Care Professionals average $32,932/year. Youth Development Pros at $37,226. All well below MA median ($45K). These are H-1B “specialty occupations.” Source: DOL LCA.
Real DOL filings: preschool teachers at $29K, direct care workers at $30K, youth workers at $35K. All Wage Level I. The H-1B visa requires a “specialty occupation” — a bachelor’s degree minimum. Source: DOL LCA Disclosure Data FY2020 & FY2024.
Devereux Foundation: 31 LCA applications for “Direct Care Professional” at $30–38K/year. Gandara Mental Health: 21 apps. Wayside Youth: 13 apps. These organizations serve vulnerable children, disabled adults, and people with mental health needs. Source: DOL LCA Disclosure Data.
IT outsourcing firms, hotel chains, pizza shops, and human services orgs — using a visa meant for “specialty occupations.”
576,625 to IT outsourcing (12.1%), 6,894 to low-skill, 6,574 to human services. Log scale — all 3 categories visible. Source: USCIS, 844K filings.
14.8% IT outsourcing, 9.2% healthcare/social, 3.0% low-skill, 73% direct employers.
Devereux Foundation (1,229), Choice Hotels (431), Cincinnati Children’s (393), Domino’s (296).
Firms placing H-1B workers at client sites. Virtusa: 7,506 approvals. Randstad entities combined: 9,497.
74 corporate approvals. 57% were “Change of Employer” — poached, not sponsored. Only 6 new hires. A donut chain.
Starbucks (1,485, 34% poached), McDonald’s (323, 48% poached), Marriott (771), Domino’s (443).
Indian IT outsourcing firms bring workers into the U.S., then American companies poach them via “Change of Employer” filings. The worker never leaves. No new visa slot is consumed. A captive secondary labor market operates inside the visa system.
Only 1 in 3 H-1B approvals brings a new worker to the U.S. The rest recycle, extend, or transfer existing workers. Source: USCIS (844K filings).
New Employment (someone comes from abroad) vs. Change of Employer (poached from existing H-1B pool). Source: USCIS.
CE share nearly doubled from 13.7% (FY2009) to 25.9% (FY2022). The pipeline is growing. Source: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub.
Ranked by % of approvals that are “Change of Employer.” These companies rarely sponsor new workers — they poach from the captive pool. Minimum 1,000 total approvals. Source: USCIS.
Fidelity: 3,761 CE approvals (39.7%). Randstad entities combined: 4,409 CE (47.0%). These firms built their MA workforce from the existing H-1B pool. Source: USCIS.
From creation in 1990 to the $100K fee in 2025 — every major piece of legislation, who it helped, and what it cost the American workforce. Sources: Congress.gov, USCIS, DOL, EPI, NBER.
Congress tripled the cap during the dot-com boom, then slashed it back. The base cap hasn’t changed in 22 years — but exemptions expanded. Source: Congress.gov, USCIS.
From $0 in 1990 to $100,000 in 2025. The most dramatic change in program history — a 20–50x increase overnight. Source: USCIS, Federal Register.
DOL sets 4 prevailing wage levels by percentile: Level I = 17th percentile, Level II = 34th, Level III = 50th (median), Level IV = 67th. 60% of H-1B positions are Level I or II — below the median wage. Level I pays 36% less than the local median for the same occupation. Math: if median software dev salary = $120K, Level I = $76,800 (17th pct). Source: DOL OES, EPI “H-1B Visas and Prevailing Wage Levels” (2020).
From ~40% (2001) to 71% (2024). Indian IT outsourcing firms engineered the program. Source: USCIS, DHS.
NBER Working Paper #23153 (Bound et al., 2017): Modeling a counterfactual U.S. without H-1B, American CS wages would be 2.6–5.1% higher and CS employment 6.1–10.8% higher. In dollar terms: if avg CS salary = $110K, that’s $2,860–$5,610 less per worker per year. Across ~4.4M U.S. CS workers = $12.6B–$24.7B in annual wage suppression. EPI (2020): H-1B holders earn 5–10% less than comparable Americans in the same occupation and region. Deloitte (2023): 83% of H-1B-dependent firms report using the visa primarily for cost savings.
AI and automation are eliminating the exact job categories that drove H-1B growth. The outsourcing model is dying. The numbers prove it. Sources: Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, NASSCOM, a16z, GitHub, Business Standard.
AI coding tools are making individual developers dramatically more productive — reducing the need for large teams that drove H-1B staffing. 63% of professional developers now use AI tools. 15 million GitHub Copilot users. Tasks completed 55.8% faster. Source: GitHub (2025), Index.dev.
TCS, Infosys, Wipro — the same firms that account for 39.7% of top 100 H-1B employers — cut 64,759 employees in FY2024. Revenue and profits INCREASED. AI lets them do more with fewer people. Source: Business Standard, company filings.
India’s $50B BPO sector employed 4 million people. AI is projected to cut that to under 1 million by 2030 — a 75% reduction. One Bangladesh BPO firm reported AI eliminated 80%+ of jobs on automatable projects. Source: Outsource Accelerator, a16z.
The tasks that drove H-1B demand — software testing, code review, data entry, customer service, business analysis — are the first to be automated. Code review: hours → minutes. Testing: fully automatable. Data analysis: AI agents outperform entry-level analysts. Source: McKinsey, DigitalOcean, a16z.
What is BPO? Business Process Outsourcing — when U.S. companies hire overseas firms (TCS, Infosys, Wipro) to handle IT, customer service, and back-office work. These firms bill “per worker” (the FTE model), which is exactly what drives H-1B demand. AI replaces workers with software agents — no visa needed. BPO company valuations have collapsed 70–80%. The per-worker billing model is falling from 42% to 28% of contracts as companies switch to AI-powered “pay per result” pricing. Source: a16z, CallMiner, Anyreach.
If AI eliminates even 30% of outsourcing-driven H-1B demand (conservative vs. McKinsey’s 57%), that’s ~170,000 fewer visa slots needed annually. At current volumes (~400K approvals/year), the program could shrink by 40%+ and still serve genuine specialty needs. Meanwhile, the $100K filing fee (2025) is already pricing out the body-shopping model. Source: Analysis based on USCIS data + McKinsey/Goldman Sachs automation projections.
Every number in this dashboard is sourced from official U.S. government databases or peer-reviewed research. No estimates except where noted.
USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub — 844,054 individual employer filing records across all 50 states + territories, FY2009–2026. Columns: employer name, city, state, NAICS code, approval/denial counts by category (New Employment, Continuation, Change of Employer, Amended, etc.). CA data partially incomplete due to download limitations. Data downloaded March 2026.
DOL Foreign Labor Certification LCA Disclosure Data — 7,629 Massachusetts Labor Condition Applications analyzed (FY2020 Q1 & FY2024 Q1). Contains actual job titles, SOC codes, wage rates, wage units, prevailing wage levels (I–IV), employer names, and worksites. Wages standardized to annual equivalents where filed hourly ($×2080).
USCIS H-1B Characteristics Congressional Reports — Annual reports to Congress, FY2003–2024. Used for India-born share percentages and total approval counts by country of birth.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Labor force participation rates, manufacturing employment data, 2000–2025. Via FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data).
Congress.gov — Full text of Immigration Act of 1990, ACWIA (1998), AC21 (2000), H-1B Visa Reform Act (2004). Executive orders via Federal Register.
ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) — Infosys record $34 million settlement for systemic visa fraud. Press release, 2013.
DOL Project Firewall — 175+ active H-1B investigations launched September 2025.
Cognizant Federal Jury Verdict (2024) — Found liable for intentional discrimination against non-Indian/non-South Asian employees. Duane Morris case analysis.
TCS Wage Theft Settlement — $30 million settlement for 13,000 foreign workers. EPI documentation.
GAO-11-26 (2011) — “H-1B Visa Program: Reforms Are Needed to Minimize Risks and Costs.”
DHS OIG Report (2017) — USCIS Needs Better Approach to Verify H-1B Participants.
Jason Miller / SHW Partners LLC — Indian government $1.8M/year lobbying contract (May 2025). Sources: Business Standard, Odwyer PR, Business Today.
NBER Working Paper #23153 — “The Effect of Immigration on Wages” — CS wage suppression estimates (2.6–5.1%) and employment reduction (6.1–10.8%).
Economic Policy Institute (EPI) — Prevailing wage level analysis showing 60% of H-1B positions below median, Level I at 36% discount.
Pew Research Center — H-1B demographic analysis, March 2025.
Heritage Foundation — Structural H-1B failure analysis.
NASSCOM — India IT/BPO revenue data ($6B–$300B trajectory), GCC counts and employee figures.
Zinnov / Deloitte — GCC growth estimates, India headcount by company.
Company SEC filings — Used for India employee counts where publicly reported.
Entity Consolidation: USCIS data contains multiple name variations per company (e.g., “Cognizant Tech Solns US Corp” vs “Cognizant Tech Solutions US Corp” vs “Cognizant Technology Solutions US”). Major entities consolidated for top employer charts. Raw data preserved in per-filing charts.
Outsourcing Firm Identification: Companies classified as “outsourcing/staffing” based on known industry lists: Infosys, Cognizant, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Capgemini, Randstad, Kforce, Compunnel, Virtusa, Sapient, etc. Classification is conservative — actual outsourcing share is likely higher.
India Revenue Interpolation: Where exact year-by-year NASSCOM figures were unavailable, values were linearly interpolated between known data points. Marked with ~.
H-1B Country Share: USCIS Congressional reports provide India % for initial approvals. Continuation/amendment percentages estimated from prior year distributions.
Business Standard: Anti-Indian hate posts on X drew 300M views
Ron Hira sparks H-1B visa debate calling for radical reform
The Hill: Musk-MAGA H-1B fight
Sanders calls for H-1B reform: “Elon Musk is wrong”
Matt Forney — The Visa Files (Substack)
NCRI Report: Online anti-Indian rhetoric surge
Grassley-Durbin H-1B & L-1 Visa Reform Act