Why many remote jobs are moving abroad

Remote work has infiltrated every industry — but none more than tech.

Between January 2020 and February 2022, remote tech jobs are up 420%+ in the US. For context, that’s a jump from 4.4% to 22%+ of total tech jobs.

And now, thanks to a combination of macroeconomic factors, many of those same jobs are moving abroad, per WSJ.

Where are they going?

One popular destination is Canada, due to its comparatively lax immigration policy for tech workers:

• The US issues 65k visas for skilled workers annually, plus 20k for workers who hold graduate degrees from American universities.
• Canada doesn’t cap its visas for incoming tech workers, resulting in an influx of immigrants from China, India, and Eastern Europe in recent years.

This difference in immigration policy is one reason Toronto, which has added more tech jobs than any other city in North America since 2016 (81k), has been called the next Silicon Valley.

In the US…

… many tech companies are desperate for new hires. The unemployment rate for tech jobs was 1.3% in March — the lowest it’s been since 2019.

Critics argue that if the US doesn’t change its immigration policy to bring in more skilled workers, it could lose its crown as the global leader in technology and innovation.

One company that’s benefitting from the mismatch between America’s visa supply and tech job demand? MobSquad, which pairs American tech companies with foreign workers, then helps them move to Canada.