What Sectors Employ H2B Workers in the U.S.?

Using an advanced search, prospective H2B employees can see what hourly wages are offered for certain jobs, as well as the leading industries in every U.S. state.

The new USCIS employer hub is a great resource for better understanding where H2B workers get hired (or at least have their petitions accepted as well as rejected) in the United States. This blog will be dedicated to looking at some of the key sectors where H2B employees work, and how the pay range differentiates between sectors as well as different U.S. states.

For a brief refresh, in order to locate the USCIS H2B employer hub, users need to go to the USCIS website and relocate to Tools>Reports and Studies>H-2B Employer Data Hub. From here, using the search engine and refining your results by the specific location or industry you are looking for will give users plenty of data and information.

Here is a direct link to the hub: USCIS Employer Data Hub

Searching by State

An efficient way of using this platform is simply to refresh your employer data hub by state search. If you are going to be moving to the U.S. and already have family members in a certain state, or you have a goal to live in a very specific place, it’s good to know the major industries and employers in that respective state. This is also an easier way to search and get to understand state economies because your search results will populate everything inclusive to the state you are interested in and nothing else.

Starting out, let's take a brief look at the H-2B worker profile in the state of Colorado. The list populates a result of 746 employers in the entire state that have hired H2B workers. Going through the first several pages of the list gives us a general trend of the industries interested in H2B candidates. These include:

  • The tourism and hospitality industry (with an emphasis on Vail Resorts and other ski-related industries)
  • Landscaping, maintenance, and lawncare industries
  • Restaurant industry

Colorado’s economy has a much different makeup than other U.S. states. The size and sprawl of the state helps us understand that the dominant seasonal industries are heavily related to maintenance-related industries, whereas if we take a look at a much smaller state such as Massachusetts, we can see the difference of where H-2B employees are working:

  • Food services, food preparation, and food serving related occupations
  • Personal care and service occupations (home health aides, makeup artists, lobby attendants, etc)

With a much smaller state and more densely populated, Massachusetts has an H2B economy made up of almost exclusively restaurant and food/cooking-related services. This would make sense given the amount of seasonal help that is also needed during the summer months when there are massive amounts of tourism in the coastal areas of this state. Also, because of the state’s dynamic economy, as well as high earning potential, there are also more specialized service jobs and opportunities available per the Personal Care category.

Pay Ranges

Livable wages always depend not solely on the actual salary of the job, but the cost of living for the inhabitant of the worker. For example, where rents are generally cheaper outside of the major cities in Colorado, H2B employees can live a more sustainable lifestyle as opposed to living in Downtown Boston on a similar H2B hourly wage. This should always be factored into the equation for prospective H2B employees before they accept a job offer in the U.S.

Personal care jobs tend to be the highest paying H2B wages. On average, the hourly wage for these types of jobs is between $16.00-17.99 USD. Many of the food preparation and food service jobs, however, average out to be around $13.00-14.99 per hourly wage. Some landscaping companies, due to the difficult labour involved average out at $16.00-17.99 hourly wage.

Name brand companies regardless of the sector, might also choose to pay their seasonal workers higher than the market average for a similar job done in a different state. For example, Vail Corporation (part of Vail Resorts), pays H2B employees $18/hour for almost all of their vacancies.

Overall, the H2B Employer Data hub can be very useful for specialized searches, and in order to investigate which industries in which states pay their employees the most for the job offered given the cost of living.

Keywords

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H-1B Visa

H-1B Visa

H-1B visa is used by businesses and organizations in the United States to employ foreign nationals with the preferred qualifications, knowledge, and expertise in a role.

I-485 Adjustment of Status

I-485 Adjustment of Status

Submit a form I-485 application to apply for lawful permanent resident status.

National Interest Waiver (NIW)

National Interest Waiver (NIW)

An applicant must either hold an advanced degree or have an exceptional ability in their field that would substantially benefit the U.S. to be qualified.