U.S. Department of Labor:update

News: December 6, 2019

266,000 New Jobs The U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs in November, bringing the total to 6.6 million new jobs since January 2017.

Unemployment Rate Drops to 50-Year Low The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in November, matching September 2019 – which was the lowest since 1969.

Wage Growth Continues Average hourly earnings increased by 3.1% year-over-year in November, the 16th straight month that wages grew at or above 3.0%. Wages grew even faster in the retail trade and leisure and hospitality sectors.

USMCA and Jobs In Michigan last week, U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and Rep. Tim Walberg discussed workforce development and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). They met with students, workers, and manufacturers and discussed how the USMCA would create 176,000 new jobs in the United States.

In Case You Missed It
Record Recovery For the second year in a row, the Department recovered a record amount of back wages for workers – over $322 million for more than 313,000 workers.	National Miners Day The Department honored our nation's miners for the important work they do to extract resources that fuel our economy.	Billions Restored In FY 2019, the Department helped restore more than $2.5 billion to employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries.
Jobless Claims at 7-Month Low Initial jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 203,000 last week, the lowest in more than seven months.	Fraud Sentence A healthcare company owner was convicted on multiple counts of fraud and identity theft, and must restore $6.03 million to the government.	Overtime Pay A Florida plumbing company paid $145,297 in back wages and damages to 46 workers after Department investigators found overtime violations.

Stat of the Week
	Keeping Workers Safe OSHA conducted 33,401 inspections in fiscal year 2019 and trained a record 1,392,611 workers. The agency also protected 3.2 million workers through its on-site consultation program.

Compliance Assistance Highlight
	Wage Assistance The Fair Labor Standards Act compliance assistance toolkit answers common questions about the federal wage law.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it has completed a successful pilot testing phase and is implementing the registration process in the next H-1B lottery. Employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for the fiscal year 2021 cap, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee.

The electronic registration process will dramatically streamline processing by reducing paperwork and data exchange, and will provide an overall cost savings to petitioning employers.

Under this new process, employers seeking H-1B workers subject to the cap, or their authorized representatives, will complete a registration process that requires only basic information about their company and each requested worker. USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020. The H-1B random selection process, if needed, will then be run on those electronic registrations. Only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

Historically, employers filed their full, and often voluminous, H-1B cap-subject petitions with USCIS, after which USCIS would select eligible petitions through a random selection process. This process resulted in unnecessary paperwork and incurred mailing costs for both petitioners and the agency.

“By streamlining the H-1B cap selection process with a new electronic registration system, USCIS is creating cost savings and efficiencies for petitioners and the agency, as only those selected will now be required to submit a full petition,” said USCIS Deputy Director Mark Koumans. “The agency completed a successful pilot testing phase, which included sessions with industry representatives, and implementation of the registration system will further the goal of modernizing USCIS from a paper-based to an online-filing agency.” 

USCIS will post step-by-step instructions informing registrants how to complete the registration process on its website along with key dates and timelines as the initial registration period nears. USCIS will also conduct public engagements and other outreach activities to ensure registrants and interested parties are familiar with the new registration system. The agency may determine it is necessary to continue accepting registrations, or open an additional registration period, if it does not receive enough registrations and subsequent petitions projected to reach the numerical allocations.

DHS formally created the H-1B registration requirement in the final rule, Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking To File H-1B Petitions on Behalf of Cap-Subject Aliens, published on Jan. 31, and effective on April 1, 2019. DHS intends to publish a notice in the Federal Register in the coming weeks to formally announce implementation of the H-1B registration system and provide additional details on the process.

On Nov. 8, 2019, DHS published a final rule establishing a $10 H-1B registration fee. The registration fee final rule is effective on Dec. 9, 2019, and will apply to registrations submitted during the initial and future registration periods.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), Instagram (/uscis), YouTube (/uscis), Facebook (/uscis), and LinkedIn (/uscis).

Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposals, Submissions, and Approvals: Notice of Appeal or Motion

12/06/2019 12:00 AM EST

Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposals, Submissions, and Approvals: Notice of Appeal or Motion

For more information, please visit our USCIS Federal Register Announcements page.

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