D I RECTI ON S
WORKFORCE SHORTAGE We’re in the midst of a huge labor shortage and it doesn’t look like there is any relief coming soon. As a matter of fact, it may get much worse this coming spring. The landscape community in Ohio relies heavily on the H2B visa program for their field staff. Maybe your company uses the program, maybe it doesn’t, but either way – there are currently more positions open than there are people available to fill those positions.
There are a total of 66,000 H2B visas made available each year. Those 66,000 visas are for ALL seasonal service industry businesses including forestry, construction, hotels, restaurants, amusement, ski resorts, fisheries, swimming pool care, landscape and more. That is not very many visas when you consider we’re talking about all of those industries across the entire United States. These visas are split into two sections – those requested for the first half of the federal fiscal year (October 1 to March 31) and those requested for the second half (April 1 to September 30). The visa “cap” was hit a couple weeks earlier for the first half of the year than it was last year. That announcement came on December 21, 2017. And the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification announced on January 3rd that on January 1, 2018, (the earliest date on which an employer seeking an employment start date of April 1 may file an H2B application requesting temporary labor certification), OFLC received approximately 4,500 applications requesting more than 81,600 worker positions.
SANDY MUNLEY
Executive Director The Ohio Landscape Association
from the visa program because of the cap. A returning worker exemption increases the number of visas in a given year by not counting workers who have used the visa program in a designated previous year. In order to not be counted, those workers also had to have followed all the rules during their previous stay. This is a concern for companies that are lucky enough to be able to staff their company with local workers, because all companies will be competing for those few local workers that are out there. And, it’s is a concern for companies that rely on H2B to staff their companies, because they’ve already proved they couldn’t find workers! If companies cannot find workers to get their jobs done, then they could be forced to lay off supervisory and support staff. Suppliers should be concerned as well, because without anyone to do the work, landscape companies will not be buying equipment, vehicles, plants, materials, etc. Worst case scenario, some companies may be forced to shut their doors.
This demand is higher than we have ever seen. On one hand, it is a good sign that the economy is doing well because there are a lot of jobs available, but the flip side to that is that there is a huge workforce shortage! Companies have to advertise the jobs through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services AND fill their openings with Americans first BEFORE they can qualify for visas.
Now is the time for us all to work together and contact our legislators. Let them know how important the H2B Visa program is to the landscape companies and their suppliers in Ohio. Tell them your story and how it could affect your company, your job, your income. Tell our legislators that we need a Returning Worker Exemption included on the next piece of “must pass” legislation. Historically, this type of relief has come on a Continuing Resolution, or Omnibus Appropriations bill.
Without a legislative fix, such as a Returning Work Exemption, many landscape companies in Ohio will not get their workers
Please call me if you have questions. I will do my best to answer your concerns.
34 | Official Publication of The Ohio Landscape Association