Tech Firms Take More H-1Bs

Silicon Valley companies have long relied on foreign skilled employees. During the recession, many big local technology firms appeared to hire a larger share of those workers compared with other top employers of professionals from overseas.

That is according to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonprofit nonpartisan policy research group in Arlington, Va. The group looked at government data on new H-1B visas that were awarded to the top 50 employers of such visa holders nationwide over the past four years. H-1B visas are the coveted visas that allow foreign skilled workers to be employed in the U.S.

According to the analysis, Silicon Valley companies such as Intel Corp. and Google Inc. received 14.7% of the new H-1Bs visas that were awarded to the top 50 H-1B employers for the year ended Sept. 30. That totaled about 2,110 approvals out of the total 14,315 such visas for the group. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303491304575188693581909362.html