American Manufacturers Importing Workers

CNN reports that U.S. manufacturers, frustrated by a shortage of skilled American factory workers, are going abroad to find them.

Business for factories has surged recently, creating a huge demand for machinists, tool and die makers and computer-controlled machine programmers and operators. The U.S. is experiencing a shrinking pipeline of manufacturing talent, said James Wall, deputy director of the National Institute for Metalworking Skills.

Wall said some manufacturers have been relying on foreign workers to fill the gaps through H-1B visas. The popular H-1B program allows highly skilled foreign workers to be employed in the U.S. for a maximum duration of six years. Each year, the government issues a quota of new H-1B work visa applications, and all industries compete against the quota. Last year’s cap was set at 65,000.

High-tech companies tend to submit the most applications for H-1B visas. Manufacturers typically aren’t big users of the program. Out of all the H-1B applications sent to the Labor Department less than 10% were from manufacturers.

The H-1B visa still needs to be approved by the State Department to be granted. So the number of issued H-1B visas could be much fewer than the number of approved applications. A majority of the applications for manufacturing last year were for architecture, engineering and other non-production related jobs. Less than 100 certified applications were for core factory jobs, such as machinists and computer-controlled machine operators, according to Labor Department data.