The San Francisco Chronicle published several articles on the ‘US Immigration’ and the current H1B visa issue. Here are some interesting quotes from the article:

They say the basic annual quota for H-1B visas — now 65,000 — is too low. The Senate bill would increase that base to 115,000 visas per year with the potential to go to 180,000, subject to various caveats.

Next one is not really a surprise:

Meanwhile, Indian workers, who account for 4 out of 10 H-1B visa holders

Indian government is also doing ‘outsourcing’ :)

Even the Indian government calls the H-1B visas the outsourcing visa

Some Numbers:
Top 5 National Origins
India: 49%
China: 9.1%
Canada: 3.6%
Korea: 3.3%
Philippines: 2.8%

Top 5 Occupations
Computer-related: 45.3%
Higher education: 11.2%
Architecture, engineering, surveying: 11.1%
Administrative specializations: 9.5%
Medicine and health: 6.2%

Good new for the software engineers:
Employers see razor-thin unemployment rates: (Unemployment rates from Bureau of Labor Statistics for April 2007)
Computer and mathematical occupations: 1.4%

Some mode readings about the subject: