New research urges US institutions: “invest in your career services”

• Research conducted collaboratively by Intead and F1 Hire shows universities could invest more into their careers services for international students
• The H-1B visa applicant-to-sponsor ratio is highest in unexpected states, including North Carolina and Michigan
• Some nine out of 10 jobs sponsoring the PERM visa are in technology – but only 1.6% of companies are “sponsor friendly” in their job descriptions

The Connecting Dots: How International Students Are Finding US Jobs research, conducted by both market specialists Intead and international graduate job search platform F1 Hire aimed to delve into the students, degrees and institutions “producing success” in finding employment for international graduates.

“We know that students, international students in particular, want jobs. That’s why they’re making this investment; they also want the fun of education and travel – there’s no question they’re adventurous.

“They want to go out and experience the world, but they’re practical. They want jobs; and the institutions that we evaluate all the time, by and large, are not investing in the outcome part. They’re not marketing that outcome part with real data,” explained Ben Waxman, CEO of Intead, speaking with The PIE News.

The most surprising statistics to come out of the report, according to Waxman, are the states in which the most H-1B jobs are being taken – as well as the best employers for international graduates.

While California had by far the most H-1B applicants at 570,499 – and 47,494 sponsors, resulting in an applicant-to-sponsor ratio of 12% –  the highest such ratio was actually seen in North Carolina, with 18.5%, and Texas not far behind with 17.9%. Michigan and Virginia were also in the realm of 15%.

“These states that have these jobs and also have fewer applicants – they are states that you wouldn’t normally think of as top-of-mind – typically it’s New York and California,” noted Waxman.

The type of degrees that are popular to try and find jobs, unsurprisingly, are STEM degrees due to the OPT access which many are taking up – and according to the research, those students frequently use F1 Hire for tech-related positions.

Some nine out of the top 10 companies sponsoring permanent labor certification, or PERM, applications in 2023 were in technology, the report said – but still challenges are present.

“After analyzing more than [one and a half] million US job postings, we have found only 1.6% of them have sponsorship-friendly language in the job description,” noted F1 Hire CEO Andrew Chen in the report.

But opportunity exists for international graduates because US tech companies cannot find enough well-trained American workers – presenting a key opportunity for universities to help boost their careers support.

“When the employers are looking for talent, a large percentage of the pool of people who have the talent they need are international,” Waxman added.

Another interesting point coming out of the report is how students are looking for the jobs, and when.

LinkedIn, unsurprisingly, is still the dominant search engine “by far” – but it’s about when they are clicking and applying to the jobs. F1 Hire data in the report showed that across its 32,320 of its users, they review around 25 jobs a day on average – and peak search activity is at the beginning of the week.

“Where I would have thought that weekend searching was the thing, the number of searches actually really goes down over the weekend and comes up Monday through Wednesday when the new jobs are posted there.

“This is Monday morning; they’re hitting the computer and saying, where’s the new ones? I want to apply,” he explained.

While US degrees are clearly benefitting students, one thing that was found in the research that PERM applicants who are earning their degrees outside the US are actually, generally speaking, earning more than those who get their degrees within the US.

For example, those from India – one of the biggest contributors to the US workforce among international graduates – are earning $111,197 (as a median salary), whereas those who aren’t US educated from India are earning $119,870 – but this is generally accompanied by an expectation of more work experience.