397. The Approval

Microsoft has announced the layoff of 4,800 employees, including 1,600 workers from its Xbox division. At the same time, data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shows that Microsoft has been approved this year to hire 2,273 foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. The two numbers are not equal. The 4,800 are leaving. The 2,273 are arriving. Both processes are occurring in the same calendar year, at the same company.

The H-1B program was designed to allow American employers to bring in workers with specialized skills that are not available in sufficient supply domestically. Employers apply to the government. The government reviews the application. The government approves or denies. Microsoft's applications were approved for 2,273 workers this year. Microsoft also determined that 4,800 of its existing employees should no longer work there. The government's approvals and the company's layoffs are both a matter of public record, which is how someone was able to put them next to each other.

(I want to note what the math does and does not show. It does not show that any specific laid-off employee was replaced by any specific H-1B worker. It does not show that any H-1B approval was directly connected to any specific layoff decision. What it shows is that Microsoft, in the same year, told the government it needed 2,273 workers it could not find domestically, and told 4,800 of its current employees they were no longer needed. Both things are true simultaneously. The interpretation is left to the reader.)

The Xbox division accounted for 1,600 of the departures. Xbox is the division responsible for the video game platforms that Microsoft makes and sells to consumers. The games industry has been contracting. Microsoft has been consolidating its gaming assets. The 1,600 who worked in that division will not be replaced through H-1B applications, presumably, though this has not been specified.

Microsoft has not commented on the juxtaposition of the two numbers, which is understandable, since the juxtaposition emerged from two separate processes that the company may not have considered in relation to each other. The government approved the H-1B applications because the applications met the criteria. The layoffs proceeded because the layoffs met whatever criteria layoffs have to meet. Both sets of criteria were satisfied in the same year. The workers involved are, presumably, aware of the numbers.