Microsoft H-1B data does not prove layoffs were replaced, despite Vance claim
JD Vance tied Microsoft’s 2025 layoffs to H-1B visas, but the available figures include many existing employees and do not match workers to jobs.
By Maya Okafor · Markets Writer
· 3 min read
Microsoft H-1B layoffs became a political flashpoint after Vice President JD Vance said the company replaced about 6,000 workers laid off in 2025 with foreign workers. The available visa figures do not establish that one-for-one replacement, a distinction that matters for Microsoft investors evaluating the claim and the administration’s action against the company.
Vance made the allegation as the Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT-services companies from the Labor Department’s PERM program, according to CNBC. PERM is part of the employer-sponsored green-card process. The suspension did not cancel H-1B visas, which are temporary work permits.
The numbers Vance cited compare different things. Microsoft received 6,258 H-1B approvals in fiscal 2025, according to CNBC’s review of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B Employer Data Hub. But CNBC reported that roughly two-thirds of those approvals involved people already working at Microsoft. An approval can cover an existing employee’s immigration status, rather than a new employee hired from overseas.
Did Microsoft replace laid-off workers with H-1B hires?
The reported data cannot answer that question. It does not identify which jobs were eliminated, which positions were filled later, or whether any individual H-1B beneficiary took the place of a laid-off employee. Comparing layoffs with total visa approvals alone therefore does not demonstrate replacement.
Microsoft gave a similar, though not identical, breakdown of its own filings. In a statement reported by Yahoo Finance, the company said 80% of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications filed in the prior year sought extensions or changes of status for current employees. Microsoft said the remaining 20% related to people already legally in the U.S. and amounted to 1% of its U.S. workforce.
The two figures should not be combined into one calculation. CNBC’s figure concerns fiscal-2025 H-1B approvals, while Microsoft’s statement concerns applications filed in the prior year. Still, both point to the same limitation: an H-1B count is not a count of new foreign hires.
What does the PERM suspension affect?
PERM, short for permanent labor certification, is generally an early step when an employer sponsors a worker for permanent residency. Axios reported that employers typically must advertise the role and document recruitment efforts to show no qualified, willing and available U.S. worker can fill it.
H-1B status is separate. It allows skilled foreign workers to work in the U.S. temporarily, generally for up to three years at a time and potentially longer through extensions, according to Axios. An H-1B holder does not need an approved PERM application to remain employed, and the reported action did not revoke existing H-1B visas or already issued green cards.
Microsoft was not the largest H-1B sponsor in the fiscal-2025 data cited by CNBC. Amazon had 19,178 approvals and Meta had 6,294, compared with Microsoft’s 6,258. CNBC reported that neither Amazon nor Meta was included in the PERM suspension.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.
