It could soon be a lot harder for U.S. companies to recruit skilled workers from overseas.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday for a comprehensive review of visa programs that allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers instead of their American counterparts.
On the campaign trail, Trump often railed against the H-1B visa, a nonimmigrant visa that lets U.S. companies employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. The H-1B has been a favorite of the tech industry, and tech leaders are anxious to keep it. But a recent research paper estimated the use of the visa had suppressed overall tech industry wages by up to 5.1 percent.
New Jersey would be the state most affected by a change to the visa system. In 2017, employers in the Garden State applied for around 5,400 H-1B visas per one million people, according to a CNBC analysis of data from MyVisaJobs.com, an aggregator of visa applications. Delaware, California and Massachusetts also are high on the list.