The employment-based H-1B visa allows for temporary employment of foreign guest workers in "specialty occupations." Demand is largely for STEM-related occupations (science, technology, engineering, math). About 97 percent of H-1B requests are from metropolitan areas, where STEM jobs tend to be concentrated. For example, 55 percent of New England's H-1B visa requests come from the Boston, Massachusetts- New Hampshire area.

When H-1B requests are normalized to total employment by metropolitan area, the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, area is shown to have had the highest H-1B demand in New England in 2012: 6.6 requests per 1,000 payroll employees. Demand was large in other Connecticut metropolitan areas, along with Boston and Worcester. However, the intensity of demand in New England was relatively small compared with that of Silicon Valley, which showed 23.9 requests per 1,000 payroll employees.

Note: This map is based on data from Robert Clifford, "Demand for H-1B Visas in New England: An Analysis of Employer Requests for Highly-Skilled Guest Workers" (report, New England Public Policy Center, 2014). H-1B requests are from the Labor Condition Applications employer file, a first step in the application process.