These job ads in local newspapers don’t really want applicants. Here’s why.
Tucked inside the Sunday Sports section, the conspicuous help-wanted ad doesn’t mention a salary. Nor does it offer geographic specificity. Applicants are told they would need to “travel and/or relocate to work in unanticipated locations throughout US.”
In the advertisement, a Cary-based staffing firm named Skill Buddy appears to seek News & Observer readers for a senior clinical research data manager position. Finding talent, after all, is ostensibly why a company buys a print classified in the local daily newspaper — something Skill Buddy did on back-to-back weekends in late October.
But does Skill Buddy want people to apply? Its classified provides no website link or email address. Instead, the company instructs applicants to physically mail in their printed resumes, which in the year 2024 is very atypical. Furthermore, the Skill Buddy job description contains little context beyond a list of data programming platforms.
Outside of the classifieds page, Skill Buddy doesn’t seem to recruit Triangle-area workers. It does not regularly post on LinkedIn or on local job boards. Its website looks unpolished, with stock photos, a rudimentary graphic and various fonts against a polychromatic background.
Elsewhere on the N&O classifieds page, companies like Red Hat, Nvidia, LexisNexis, Advance Auto and Fidelity promote jobs in complete sentences with wage ranges, office locations and online links. None demand applications by snail mail.
So what’s with the Skill Buddy newspaper ad? While the staffing agency wouldn’t say, signs suggest theirs isn’t a regular help-wanted classified but instead what’s known as a PERM advertisement. And in fewer than 400 characters, it explains a lot about the modern U.S. immigration system.
‘That’s by design’
Permanent labor certification, known as PERM, is a multi-step program employers must complete before sponsoring employees for green cards. To ensure workers on temporary visas don’t gain permanent residency through opportunities U.S. workers might desire, the federal government makes companies first test the labor market to see if other qualified candidates apply. Part of this test requires employers to advertise PERM jobs in a “newspaper of general circulation in the area of intended employment most appropriate to the occupation.”
The U.S. Department of Labor updated the rule in 2004 to mandate each advertisement appear in two Sunday editions. These ads run in papers big and small, from The New York Times to the Corpus Christi Caller Times. An employer also must post a PERM job order to the local state workforce agency for at least 30 days.
“The law is there to protect the labor market so that employers use the immigration system to fill authentic gaps where there are genuine shortages,” said Ronil Hira, an associate professor of political science at Howard University.
In reality, Hira says, not all PERM advertisements serve this goal. For while employers can craft job descriptions in earnest attempts to attract applicants, others follow the letter of the law to a minimum in hopes that few, if any, mail in resumes.
“You’re not required to make it modern,” said Patrick Hatch, an immigration lawyer with Hatch Rockers Immigration in Raleigh. “You don’t have to make it easier.”
.jpg "IMG_6474 (1).jpg")
Each PERM advertisement must include four details: the company’s name, directions on how to submit resumes, a description of the job vacancy (“enough to apprise the U.S. workers of the job opportunity”), and the job location. The advertisements can’t offer wages beneath the prevailing industry standard or describe job duties not asked of the temporary employee currently doing the job.
But these ads don’t have to feature salary details at all. Nor do they need to be written to catch a job seeker’s eye.
“They don’t sound attractive, and that’s by design,” said Rishi Oza, an attorney at Brown Immigration Law in Durham. “It’s a dance. If the (U.S.) Department of Labor wants to identify what more needs to be added, then it can simply pass updated regulations with such a mandate.”
Oza points out these “open” jobs aren’t unfilled. Visa holders already work them, and often have for quite some time. A temporary worker may be at a company on the popular, high-skilled H-1B visa for up to six years before they must get their green card eligibility form approved.
“The employer has already found the person they want to hire,” he said. “They have poured in four, five years of training them, and the person is probably good at their job. Why would (employers) want to swap them out for someone new?”
Not considering U.S. workers
On Nov. 10, the Cary-based water infrastructure engineering firm Highfill ran an N&O classified for a project engineer position at its Winston-Salem office. At the bottom, Highfill directed applicants to mail in their resumes.
Highfill recruitment coordinator Shayla Riley said the advertised role is a PERM job currently held by an H-1B visa worker the company wants to sponsor for a green card. She said the wording around mailing in applications was inserted by the law firm representing Highfill through the PERM process.
“Myself and (Highfill president Tyler Highfill) thought that was odd for sure, because, you know, email is a lot more reasonable in this time,” Riley said. “But we didn’t want to switch it up because we’re not super familiar with the process.”
Highfill has 32 employees and hasn’t completed the PERM in at least the past five years, federal records show. On its website, the company provides an email address where people can send resumes for the Winston-Salem project engineer position.
“If we have someone who applies for project engineer, and they meet the requirements and qualifications, we’re looking to grow and we’re open to hiring on new people,” Riley said.
When applicants respond to PERMs, companies are obligated to consider them in good faith. But this hasn’t always occurred.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Facebook (now Meta) of treating PERM openings in “contrast to its standard recruiting practices.” According to the DOJ charge, Facebook deterred U.S. workers by requiring mail-only applications and then refusing to hire U.S. workers (which may include citizens, nationals, legal permanent residents, asylees and refugees) who did apply. The company settled the following year and agreed to pay a $4.75 million fine, plus up to $9.5 million to applicants affected by Facebook’s hiring practices.
“Companies cannot set aside certain positions for temporary visa holders because of their citizenship or immigration status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Then in 2023, Apple agreed to pay $25 million to settle its own PERM case with the Justice Department. The government found Apple discriminated against U.S. workers in its hiring of PERM roles by — among other obstacles — requiring they mail in printed applications for these roles despite allowing electronic applications for non-PERM openings.
“These less effective recruitment procedures nearly always resulted in few or no applications to PERM positions from applicants whose permission to work does not expire,” the DOJ said.
Critics of the U.S. high-skilled immigration system point out employers may prefer sponsoring visa workers to hiring U.S. workers because they retain greater control over visa workers as they await green cards.
Due to country-of-origin quotas and processing delays, green card applications from India — the home nation of most H-1B workers — are severely backlogged. According to the U.S. Department of State, Indian nationals who applied in 2012 are just now getting their green card applications considered.
If a worker in the green card queue wishes to change jobs, they first need to find a new employer willing to sponsor their application.
“With limited mobility, this can expose workers to substandard working conditions or prevent them from advancing up the professional ladder,” said U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, during a 2021 House subcommittee hearing on immigration and citizenship.
Staffing firms game the system
In 2022, The News & Observer ran 740 PERM job advertisements — each appearing twice — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services records show.
Many were submitted by prominent Triangle technology employers like Cisco (32 local PERMs in 2022), Red Hat (28), IBM (12), Lenovo (17), SAS Institute (10), MetLife (10). But a large source of these classifieds came from IT staffing and outsourcing agencies. These firms get involved years before the green card process begins, serving as middlemen to connect foreigners to U.S. jobs by applying for the H-1B visa.
High-skilled visas are meant to help companies fill shortages with specialized, degree-holding labor. Congress caps the annual number of awarded H-1B visas at 85,000, and according to a recent Bloomberg analysis, more than a quarter of them last year went to IT staffing firms. Several of the largest IT staffing firms are based in India, home to most H-1B recipients. While not a top H-1B hirer itself, Cary’s Skill Buddy has a second office in Puducherry, India.
Bloomberg found IT staffing agencies search for H-1B applicants with more modest resumes and pay them lower salaries.
“The reason that some of the staffing firms apply for these PERMs is not because they want the worker to get a green card,” Howard University’s Ronil Hira said. “It’s that they want to extend the advantages of the H-1B conditions.”
.jpg "IMG_6472 (1).jpg")
Triangle-based staffing agencies like Skill Buddy place workers at businesses across the country. USCIS records show Skill Buddy has, in the past five years, hired visa workers for sites in North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Texas. When it comes time to complete the PERM, staffing firms conduct their labor test in the local market of their U.S. headquarters. That is why Skill Buddy ran a classified in the daily Raleigh newspaper for work at “unanticipated locations throughout US.”
USCIS data shows Skill Buddy has posted multiple PERM ads in The News & Observer over the past four years, each for a worker from India. The N&O reached out to Skill Buddy about its advertisement and received an email from the law firm representing the company that said, “Due to our client confidentiality policy, we cannot disclose our clients’ information.”
Skill Buddy isn’t the only IT staffing firm to do so. On the first Sunday in November, the Durham-based firm Perigon Infotech advertised openings for entry level to senior level software developers. Interested applicants were told to physically mail their resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to Perigon’s Durham office.
Perigon representatives did not respond to questions about its classified ad. USCIS data shows the firm has previously placed multiple PERM advertisements in the N&O, each for a visa worker from India.
There is a bipartisan effort in Congress to reform the current labor test. Late last year, Rep. Richard McCormick, a Georgia Republican, introduced the Immigration Visa Efficiency and Security Act which, among sweeping changes to the H-1B system, would establish a free “searchable internet website for posting positions” where U.S. workers could find these “open” positions.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "These job ads in local newspapers don’t really want applicants. Here’s why.."
