H-2B workers are vital to the winter tourism industry in Colorado and nationwide, which is anticipating severe workforce shortages ahead of its busiest season
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper and a bipartisan group of his colleagues sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh urging them to address workforce shortages ahead of the winter tourism season by releasing 65,000 previously-announced supplemental Fiscal Year 2023 H-2B visas.
“Given the lengthy timelines involved in securing H-2B visa slots and hiring and onboarding recipients, each day that passes without action contributes to the risk of those challenges repeating themselves.” wrote Hickenlooper and his colleagues. “Releasing the recently-announced 65,000 supplemental H-2B visas as soon as possible will ensure that major winter employers like ski areas, and the mountain communities that depend on them, have a fair shot at accessing the program when H-2Bs are needed most.”
Many states, including Colorado, see significant economic benefit from the winter tourism season, especially across rural communities. Yet, the National Ski Areas Association found that 81 percent of all ski areas in the United States had unfilled winter jobs in 2022. The expedited release of these additional 65,000 H-2B visas will help the winter tourism industry combat this workforce shortage.
The H-2B nonimmigrant program permits employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform nonagricultural labor or services in the United States when U.S. workers are not available. In September 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the first-half H-2B visa cap for FY23 had been reached – the earliest the cap has ever been reached..
In addition to Hickenlooper, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators John Barrasso, Maggie Hassan, Angus King, Amy Klobuchar, Cynthia Lummis, Jeanne Shaheen.
The full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Mayorkas and Secretary Walsh:
We write to urge you to address serious labor shortages affecting the ski and winter tourism industry in our states by providing H-2B visa cap relief. Specifically, we ask that the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor move expeditiously to issue the temporary final rule for the previously-announced 65,000 supplemental Fiscal Year 2023 H-2B visas.
On September 15th, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the first-half H-2B visa cap for FY23 had been reached – more than two weeks earlier than the same limit was met in FY22, which was previously the fastest this occurred. We thank your agencies for moving quickly to combat this shortage by announcing the release of 65,000 supplementary visas. However, should implementation and application guidelines for those additional visas not be issued quickly, not all industries will be able to benefit.
H-2B workers are especially vital to the ski and winter tourism industry nationwide, which is anticipating severe workforce shortages ahead of hiring for its busiest season. The industry has sought to address these shortages independent of H-2B hiring, including through significant wage increases, with overall ski wage rates increasing by 28% in the past five years across the 37 states containing ski areas.
Despite this, vacancies and workforce shortages remain widespread even as demand for outdoor recreation continues to grow. According to the National Ski Areas Association, 81% of all ski areas in the U.S. had unfilled winter jobs in the 2022 ski season. Additionally, the average number of winter positions that went unfilled at ski areas was 76– a steep increase from an average of 55 unfilled positions in 2021.
The urgency of addressing these workforce shortages cannot be overstated. In addition to ski and winter tourism businesses themselves, the rural mountain communities who host them depend heavily on winter tourism and recreation visitors for their overall economic health and growth.
Because employment start dates for ski area employees typically occur in early December, the statutory H-2B cap has been met too early for the industry to effectively utilize the program every year since 2018. And while your agencies have traditionally released supplemental visas, in the past, they have come too late to mitigate severe workforce shortages that delayed openings and limited operational capacity.
Given the lengthy timelines involved in securing H-2B visa slots and hiring and onboarding recipients, each day that passes without action contributes to the risk of those challenges repeating themselves. Releasing the recently-announced 65,000 supplemental H-2B visas as soon as possible will ensure that major winter employers like ski areas, and the mountain communities that depend on them, have a fair shot at accessing the program when H-2Bs are needed most. We thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
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