Labor Authorizations in terms of years

Hard data is good to find, especially on nonimmigrant temporary workers.

A CRS publication reveals that 628,390 temporary workers were issued visas in FY 2006. These visas vary in duration, in terms of years; with extensions, the H-1B is a six year visa, the L-1b is five years and the L-1a is a seven year visa.

In 2006, 135,421 H-1B visas were issued and 72,613 L-1 visas were issued.
208,025 (33%) of the 628,290 temporary worker visas granted were H-1B or L-1 multi-year visas.

http://www.travel.state.gov/xls/FY07AnnualReport.xls Table XVI(B)

Assume for a moment that the average nonimmigrant temporary guest-worker is allowed (including renewals, extensions and those refusing to depart) to work in the U.S. for 3 years. In Project Management terms, the government has authorized work permits for 1,885,170 "man" years of work in 2006 alone.

The unadjusted growth in the BLS Employment Levels:

2006 = 2,697,000
2007 = 1,620,000

Two year total = 4,317,000 employment growth

Temporary worker assumption (3 yr. work status duration)

2006 = 1,885,170
2007 = 1,885,170

Total work authorizations (in work/man years) = 3,770,340

In terms of work authorization years, 87% of employment growth in the past 2 years has been granted to temporary workers.

Congressional Research for Congress (CRS) publication
Order Code RL31381
U.S. Immigration Policy on
Temporary Admissions


(Page CRS 13)
In FY2006, temporary workers accounted for 1,709,953 admissions into the United States (excluding admissions on laser visas), which constitutes a 69.2% increase over FY1998.

(Page CRS 16)
Each of these issuance categories has grown between FY2002 and FY2006, with the
student category increasing by 17.3% and the temporary worker category increasing
by 21.7%.25 The FY2006 level of the former category was 642,097, while the level
of the latter category was 628,390.


(Page CRS 3)
Temporary Workers. The major nonimmigrant category for temporary
workers is the H visa. Professional specialty workers (H-1B), nurses (H-1C)
agricultural workers (H-2A) and unskilled temporary workers (H-2B) are included.9
Persons with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or
athletics are admitted on O visas, while internationally recognized athletes or
members of an internationally recognized entertainment group come on P visas.
Aliens working in religious vocations enter on R visas. Temporary professional
workers from Canada and Mexico may enter according to terms set by the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on TN visas.
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2008,0604-crs.pdf