After I was laid off in 2024, I applied for a lot of jobs. I applied broadly at UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges, including two positions at Hampshire College. I also applied at CVS, Stop & Shop, Big Y and other local employers. The response was remarkably thin. Out of all those applications, I received one callback and interview, for a janitorial position at UMass. That left me with a question. What was happening to all the other jobs? I wasn't particularly interested in guessing. I wanted to see what I could actually find. Looking at H-1B records One place I started looking was the federal employment data associated with H-1B workers. Before an employer can sponsor someone for an H-1B visa, it generally files a Labor Condition Application, or LCA, with the U.S. Department of Labor. Those filings create a public record containing information such as the employer, occupation, location and offered wage. Several websites make that data searchable, including H1BData, MyVisaJobs...
Musician, songwriter adamrsweet@outlook.com