Quick Hits

• The H-2B guest worker program allows employers to hire foreign workers from certain designated countries temporarily to meet their seasonal, intermittent, peak load, or one-time occurrence labor demands.
• H-2B workers support diverse industries across the United States, including housekeeping, tourism, landscaping, construction, amusement, and seafood processing.
• On September 18, 2024, the H-2B cap for the first half of FY 2025 was met, leaving many employers with a shortage of temporary workers needed to support their operations.

Through the H-2B program, employers are permitted to hire foreign workers to meet their seasonal, nonagricultural labor demands when they can demonstrate they are not able to fill open positions with U.S. workers. The regulations allow DHS to issue 66,000 H-2B visas annually. The visas are split evenly between the first and second halves of the fiscal year. The H-2B cap for the first half of FY 2025 was met approximately three weeks earlier than in FY 2024.

As a result of timing restrictions in the H-2B filing process, employers that have need of seasonal guest workers in 2024 and early 2025 will be unable to fill these openings unless additional H-2B slots are released. The limitation on H-2B lottery numbers poses significant challenges for employers across the United States. The demand for H-2B cap lottery spots demonstrates what the DOL reports in labor market data, that job openings for seasonal positions have increased, particularly in the industries that utilize H-2B seasonal employees.

The U.S. Congress has authorized DHS to raise the H-2B visa cap for the past eight fiscal years. Last fall, the DOL and DHS released an additional 64,716 H-2B visas for FY 2024 to help meet seasonal labor demands.