
The Covid pandemic continued to batter the US economy, with the country’s GDP shrinking 33 percent in the April-June quarter to record its worst contraction since World War 2. Unemployment, too, is at its worst level since that war. With a presidential election around the corner, the rhetoric around jobs for Americans, predictably, is again rising. On cue, President Donald Trump has announced further restrictions on people with H-1B visas, preventing them from working in federal contracts.
Yugal Joshi, Vice President of IT consulting firm Everest Group, said: “Besides the political rhetoric given the election and ongoing pandemic, the direction of such a move (ring-fencing federal contracts) is problematic for any skill-based industry and this isn’t limited to India-based IT service firms.”