In the past few days all major news media have been reporting about recession. The housing market is already lagging in many areas of the country and there is an excess inventory of houses.
The best technical indicator for recession is the inverted yield curve for short term and long-term US government, municipal and corporate bonds.
The same technical indicator has predicted the recessions of 2008, 2000, 1991 and 1981. The warning alarm has sounded and the chance of recession in the first quarter of 2020 is almost certain.
H-1B employees are affected very much by recession because companies tend to slash IT department budgets and reduce expenses during recession period to appease stockholders. Many H-1B employees will remember the struggling economic recession period of 2008 vaguely.
H-1B employees employed by Indian Implementation Partners are the most vulnerable as they have full time jobs on paper only. The moment they are rolled off from an end client project they are only paid on bench for 2 weeks to 2 months depending on their technology and skill level before they are sent to the home country and paid a highly reduced salary.
H-1B employees without an approved I-140 loose their priority date and unlimited H-1B extensions beyond six years if their I-140 is not approved for 180 days or more.
The expression of interest rank for Canada Permanent residency is above 445 points, one of the highest cutoff scores in the last 3 years and a job offer from a Canadian employer is required in most cases to submit a Permanent Residency application now.
The US Department of Labor will be revising the H-1B prevailing wages in June 2019 and there is a high chance of 5-8k increase in wages that need to be paid to H-1B employees. The current Level 2 wage for the most commonly used H1B job title “Software Developer, Applications” (used for Java, .Net and other developers) is $102,669 for San Francisco area and $92,768 for Jersey City.
For employers with more than 50 employees it costs $9000 in government fees plus attorney fees to sponsor a H-1B employee. Health Insurance and other benefits cost another $7000 to $8000 per employee. This roughly translates to $65 per hour in salary per employee just to maintain the payroll and benefits.
Any H-1B employee earning less than $85 per hour in billing from an end client and working for a big 5 consulting firm or an Indian Implementation partner is at the risk of layoff. Many H-1B employees will be subject to additional layoffs in the next year due to the looming recession in 2020.
We request H-1B employees who are subject to an imminent layoff to send their resume to info@immigrationadvice.com and we will help them find a new employer who can sponsor them.
Press release by: Indian Clicks, LLC