Major US tech firms are recruiting low-wage H1B visa workers from other countries to fill in specialised IT positions in the country. Starting in the latter part of 2022, major IT behemoths, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, fired a sizable proportion of their workforce. The same businesses may now be willing to hire low-paid overseas workers to fill technical roles in their companies, as per a recent report.
The public disclosure of the employment of low-wage foreign labour corresponds with the release of huge US layoffs at leading Silicon Valley businesses and the possibility of additional rounds of layoffs. Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Zoom, and Palantir are a few of the businesses that are planning to recruit overseas employees, putting an emphasis on those carrying H1B visas.
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Google has reportedly submitted multiple applications in the United States to hire low-wage H1B visa workers to occupy highly technical positions such as user experience researchers, analytical consultants, software engineers, and more, based on an investigation by journalist Lee Fang.
The recent hirings shed light on the paradox that the US cutbacks have had an immediate effect on tens of thousands of H1B visa holders, including those from India. Following the termination of their employment, these workers have lost or would soon lose their legal right to continue working in the US. On the contrary, various prospective H1B visa candidates have been receiving job offers from the same business.
Comparable visa petitions for engineering positions have also been submitted by Google-owned self-driving automobile business Waymo. The majority of these requests, said Fang, pertain to fresh hires, and joining dates might possibly begin from August 17, 2023, based on information gathered by the US Department of Labour. On March 2023, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, disclosed that the business was considering terminating additional 9,000 workers. Amazon had previously discontinued the employment of over 18,000 employees in the most massive wave of US layoffs to date.
Implementing CEO Mr Zuckerberg's 'Year of Efficiency' mantra, Meta, the tech company that operates WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook has laid off about 25% of its employees. In an effort to ‘exercise caution’ given that some regions of the world are currently facing a recession and others are bracing for one, Microsoft additionally disclosed the layoff of 10,000 job roles or about 5% of its overall employees.
Furthermore, based on reports, Microsoft is unlikely to increase the wages of its full-time workers in the year 2023 and will cut back on its spending for incentives and stock incentives. Alphabet, the holding company of Google, said earlier that it will be terminating 12,000 employees approximately 6% of its workforce.
Source: Livemint
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