This article is based off of our 2020 H1B Sponsorship Report. You can find more details on specific sponsorships or other information pertaining to the H1B, including our comprehensive H1B database, on our website in the International section.

This article focuses on the 2020 H1B Sponsorship Report Popular Functional Areas.

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The top five functional areas (also known as Standard Occupational Classification or SOC) make up around 65% of all business related applications for the H1B in 2020. These functional areas are as follows (with number of applications):

• Accountants and Auditors (9017 applications)


• Management Analysts (7596 applications)


• Financial Analysts (7403 applications)


• Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists (3665 applications)


• Financial Quantitative Analysts (2098 applications)

While these top functional areas make up the majority of all business related applications for the 2020 H1B, they have all had a significant decrease in number of applications as compared to 2019, from a loss of 8.8% with Accountants and Auditors, all the way up to a loss of 41.2% for Financial Quantitative Analysts.

This trend is consistent for all of the top functional areas for 2020 with the exception of one, Risk Management Specialists which ranked seventh in our top ten. In 2019 there were 13 applications for Risk Management Specialists, compared to 1377 for 2020. That is an increase of 10,492%. This is a clear indication of the impact that Covid has had on both the number of visas requested, as well as the shift in focus on what positions employers are looking for.

Another indication of changing trends is that, unlike last year where the vast majority of the top employers for these top functional areas were based in either the Financial Services and Consulting industries, for 2020 there seems to be a more even split between Financial Services, Consulting, Technology and Internet and eBusiness industries.

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Our report is divided into four sections : USA Overview, Popular States, Popular Functional Areas and Selected Employers. For each section we provided the most up to date and relevant information to make sure you are as informed as possible to better enable you to make the best decisions for your career.

Check out our full 2020 H1B Sponsorship Report and search our vast database to find out all you need to know about the H1B.