Seasonal visas look to address 2023 summer worker shortage
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U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, made a successful push to get tens of thousands of additional visas to bridge an expected shortage of Maine workers next summer.
Tens of thousands of additional seasonal workers may be available for hire across the country next summer after it was announced that 64,716 more non-agricultural worker visas will be issued for fiscal year 2023.
The newly approved visas are in addition to 66,000 H-2B visas usually available each year.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, who announced the increase in visas, had previously called on the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor to up the number of H-2B visas for fiscal year 2023 to the maximum allowed — about 65,000 — to help small businesses hire workers.
H-2B workers support job growth and small businesses, according to bipartisan Congressional research, which found a direct correlation between increased numbers of H-2B workers and increased employee pay across the board. The law requires employers must first try to hire American workers to fill open positions; the visas fill the need when there are not enough willing U.S. workers to fill temporary seasonal jobs.
This is the first time the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have issued a single rule making available H-2B additional visas for several allocations throughout the fiscal year, according to the release.
“These 65,000 additional H-2B visas will provide much-needed relief for small businesses that are continuing to face extreme difficulty finding workers in a tight labor market,” said Collins and King in a prepared release. “Without these visas, many small businesses, particularly hotels and restaurants in our hospitality industry, would be unable to open or would have to curtail their operations, hurting local communities and Maine employees.
"We must improve the H-2B program to ensure Maine small businesses do not continue to suffer from a lack of workers.”
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