Big Tech companies have resumed hiring foreign workers just months/weeks after announcing mass layoffs, raising eyebrows and drawing criticism. Beginning late last year, many tech giants including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta fired a significant portion of workers. Now, a new report suggests that the same companies are willing to hire low-paid foreign employees to fill technical positions.
According to a report by investigative journalist Lee Fang, citing data from the US Department of Labor, Google filed applications for low-paid H1-B workers to fill highly specialized tech positions in the United States. Many of these workers are on the H1-B visa.
The applications submitted by Google included roles such as software engineers, analytical consultants, user experience researchers, and more. Additionally, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google focused on self-driving cars, also sought visa applications for engineering jobs. The visas, many of which were intended for new hires, had start dates as early as August 17.
The data from the Department of Labor unveiled that various tech giants that recently underwent significant layoffs, such as Meta Platforms, Amazon, Zoom, Salesforce and Microsoft, had requested thousands of H1-B foreign worker visas.
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The new hirings highlight the irony that thousands of workers on H1-B visas, including those from India, have been directly impacted by the US layoffs. These employees have either lost or will soon lose the right to stay in the US after getting laid off. On the other hand, many new H1-B applicants are being invited to fill positions in the same company.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has laid off 21,000 employees within a few months, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg named it the "year of efficiency" in response to the downsizing US tech sector. Google laid off 12,000 employees in January and Amazon has conducted two rounds of layoffs, removing around 27,000 employees from its payroll.
Microsoft announced a global workforce reduction of nearly 5 per cent, equivalent to 10,000 jobs, in January. CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that despite the job cuts, the company would continue hiring in key strategic areas.
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