Jobs & Money Detail
America's most wanted professions
Matt French looks at the what should be the most desirable professions when emigrating, and what actually are.
The most wanted terrorists in America were conveniently put on a pack of playing cards a few years ago, but no such simple reference point is available for people dreaming of making the move to the US. However, the fact is if you want to move to the States, your chances of emigrating successfully are greatly increased if you belong to one of a select few professions.
Some of these professions, understandably, featured in the Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey 2007. In the survey of 2,400 US employers, the international employment services company found that 41 per cent struggled to find qualified job candidates. They were also able to compile a useful top ten list of the hardest-to-fill jobs. Top of the list were sales representatives, followed by teachers and mechanics. The rest of the chart included technicians, managers/executives, truck drivers, delivery persons, accountants, labourers and machine operators "With the variety of positions employers are struggling to fill, it seems like job seekers should have little trouble finding work," said Jonas Prising, President of Manpower North America. "Yet on a daily basis we hear from clients who can't find the right people for open positions and candidates who are struggling to get hired. The reality is the talent crunch is more complex than a shortage of people. To bridge the talent gap, we must dig deeper and consider issues such as skill levels and geographic dispersion."
Unfortunately, though, these findings do not mean an automatic visa stamp for anyone in these professions. Though, on the other hand, it is still very encouraging news for some.
Sales representatives top the list of hardest-to-fill jobs for the second straight year. However, the qualifying criteria for American visas means that – even if you are willing – a US employer will most likely be unable to hire you. The H1-B visa is a temporary, non-immigrant visa allowing professionals to come into the states to work in 'specialty occupations.' Every year, thousands of Brits enter the US through this visa route, though it is the responsibility of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to determine what constitutes a 'specialty' occupation.
To qualify a foreign worker must have either a four-year degree or an equivalent amount of work experience. Unfortunately, though, this isn't a straight three years of relative experience, but three years for every one year of a degree. In other words you need to be able to demonstrate 12 years of equivalent work experience in your field, and that is without considering the other requirements for this visa. The H-2B, on the other hand, allows non-specialty workers into the US, but involves a drawn-out process of labour certification. This entails a US employer first advertising for an American worker to fill a post for a number of months. So, you must have secured a job offer that fits your occupation and the employer must be offering the 'prevailing' wage, which is the average wage paid to people in your profession in the US. What this can mean is a lengthy wait: so you would need to be an exceptional sales rep, and have a job offer from an employer willing to wait for your visa to be granted.
However, the US skills shortage is better news for others. The H-1B is typically used by people in the IT, telecoms, healthcare, accounting, teaching, legal, marketing and advertising and engineering industries. Therefore, from Manpower's list, teachers and accountants should be especially encouraged. The maximum period of an H-1B is three years – although one three-year extension can be sought – and there is also the possibility of obtaining a green card via an H-1B. An H-1B worker can also transfer to another employer if the job is equivalent to the original one. As always, though, there is bad news accompanying the good. Although 65,000 to 85,000 places are available via the H-1B every year, they tend to be taken well before the year they relate to. So, for example, the H1-Bs for 2007 were available from April 2006 and 2008 visas were available from April this year. The USCIS is inundated with thousands of H-1B applications in the days after it opens for the following year's intake. So, if you think you may qualify for an H-1B, it is advisable to find a suitable employer that expects to grab a handful of H-1Bs well before April next year – or you'll be waiting a whole year to get another chance to do so.
More encouragement, from the Manpower league table, should be found by managers and executives. Not only is there said to be a shortage of qualified, experienced US candidates for these positions, there is also a visa category especially for such people. The L-1 category allows aliens who work for a company with a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate in the US to enter the US as 'intracompany transferees'. This means a person may enter America temporarily to perform services either in a managerial or executive capacity – so long as it entails specialised knowledge – for a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the same employer that employed the professional abroad. In order to qualify, the employee must have been employed abroad for the corporation or firm on a full-time basis for at least one continuous year out of the three years immediately prior to their application. In comparison to the H-1B, this visa has the additional advantage of having no annual cap on the number of entrants approved. Also, the employer is not required to obtain a labour certification prior to petitioning in this category.
As part of the requirement for this visa, the manager or executive must submit a letter from their foreign qualifying employer detailing his or her dates of employment, job duties, qualifications and salary. There must also be a detailed description of the proposed job duties the applicant will undertake and evidence the proposed employment is in an executive or managerial capacity. If the applicant is coming to the US as a manager or executive to open or to be employed in a new office, there must also be evidence that sufficient premises to house the new office have been secured.
Also worth noting is that teachers and mechanics replaced engineers and healthcare workers in the second- and third-place positions in the Manpower survey this year. "Even though some jobs fell off the top ten list, demand for these positions still exists," said Prising. "We know that employers are attempting to manage their talent requirements through a variety of strategies, including outsourcing, offshoring and technology, due to the fact that the pressure to meet production and financial goals remains despite talent shortages." Some workers will find being in demand is advantageous and should shop around for the best employment opportunity.
Melanie Holmes, Manpower Vice President of Corporate Affairs North America, said: "Employers are seeing more and more rejected job offers, creating a healthy competition as companies vie for top talent. As a result of this, employers are revising policies and enhancing benefits in areas as common as flexible scheduling to non-traditional offerings like onsite yoga classes. We anticipate increasingly creative cultural changes as companies take the steps necessary to distinguish themselves in the eyes of employees." There has never been a better time to be 'wanted' in America. So long as you can obtain that ever-elusive work visa to get a foot in the door, that is.
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