Jobs Now for Americans

Last year when there was a viral internet response to Elon Musk’s strident defense of H-1B work visas, our team discovered in public databases that immigrants were commonly being sponsored by major companies for, in our view, fairly simple and unspecialized jobs that many Americans would be qualified and eager to do. Jobs like entry level software engineers, accountants, financial analysts, that require education, but command ordinary middle-class salaries.

We were shocked when we discovered there is no requirement as part of the H-1B visa process for companies to first search for American workers to fill positions. But as we did more research, we discovered there is a step in the immigration process where companies must look for American workers: the PERM stage of green card sponsorship.

The PERM Process

The PERM process (Program Electronic Review Management) is the first step for companies seeking to sponsor a “temporary” foreign worker for a permanent employment-based green card. PERM is a program run by the Department of Labor (DOL) to confirm that hiring a foreign worker will not displace or disadvantage U.S. workers. During PERM, employers must conduct a labor market test by advertising the job through specific recruitment steps, including placing ads in newspapers, posting with the state workforce agency, and displaying a notice at the worksite. In theory, companies are required to run the labor market test as a normal recruitment process that treats all applicants fairly. Only if the test finds that no minimally qualified U.S. worker is available and willing to take the job can the company file a PERM application with the DOL to proceed to issuance of a green card for an immigrant worker.

The process seems reasonable enough, but when you combine the labor market test with the H1B visa program that has no requirement to search for Americans, perverse incentives come into play. Companies often hire an immigrant worker under H-1B, and then conduct the PERM test to apply for permanent residency when the immigrant has already been working for the company for several years. As a result, the company is incentivized to rig the process to allow them to proceed with their existing employee.

In our research we discovered that multiple big tech companies have already settled with the DOJ as a result of lawsuits for discriminating against American citizens during PERM labor market tests. Both Apple in 2023 and Facebook in 2021 had similar patterns of behavior during PERM labor market tests:

• They did not list postings on their websites (unlike other non-PERM roles)
• They required applications by postal mail only
• They did not follow the same recruiting processes as for normal open roles

As a result of these unusual practices, very few or no Americans noticed or successfully applied for PERM roles. The DOJ alleged in these lawsuits that these practices constituted discrimination against American applicants & a preference for foreign workers, in violation of the Immigration & Nationality Act.

Reading the briefs from these two lawsuits, we were shocked to discover that other major companies appear to still be conducting PERM labor market tests using the same discriminatory practices Apple & Facebook settled with the DOJ for using. Reviewing newspaper classified listings, we found numerous ads from companies like OpenAI and Instacart requesting postal mail applications, and job listings that did not appear on the company websites. So the team behind Jobs.Now decided to take action.

Founding Jobs.Now

At Jobs.Now we developed a proprietary sourcing process that identifies jobs exclusively from locations legally required by the PERM process for sponsoring immigrant workers for green cards. We have expanded our job board to include roles across the country in major cities including San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. We’ve posted over 4,500 job postings, generating over 70,000 applications at over 1,500 companies.

So far we’ve heard from numerous users who have obtained significant numbers of interviews, performing well compared to their applications on other sites. But we believe the most important work is still ahead: ending the rampant discrimination against American workers that has become standard practice in the tech industry & other industries with highly educated workforces like accounting, consulting, biotech, and finance.

The Jobs.Now team believes reform to the employment-based immigration system is long overdue, and urges lawmakers & policymakers to immediately pursue reforms across programs including:

• H-1B: Add a labor market test requirement for this visa, to ensure that companies consider Americans first for all jobs in America. Additionally, we believe companies should pay an extra ongoing payroll tax for each H1B they employ, to avoid any cost arbitrage of hiring lower-paid foreign workers.
• PERM: Labor market tests should be reformed to require posting all ads on the companies main career website, accept applications digitally via this same website, and have their ordinary recruiting staff review applications according to the same process as all other hiring. Companies should also be required to post open roles on mainstream online job boards like Linkedin or Indeed, and consider applicants for equivalent roles for open PERM labor market tests.
• OPT: The statutory STEM OPT visa program that allows graduating foreign students 3 years to work without another visa should be cancelled immediately and entirely, as it unfairly allows foreign students to take entry level jobs that American citizens graduating from college could fill.