U.S. Cities and States Most Reliant on Seasonal Foreign Labor
Photo Credit: Zoran Zeremski / Shutterstock
Seasonal foreign workers play a significant role in helping U.S. employers address short-term labor shortages during periods of peak demand. The two primary pathways are the H-2A and H-2B temporary worker programs. The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal farm jobs when there are not enough available U.S. workers, while the H-2B program serves employers with temporary non-agricultural labor needs in industries such as landscaping, hospitality, seafood processing, construction, and recreation. Before employers can hire through either program, they must demonstrate a temporary need and satisfy federal labor certification requirements intended to protect U.S. workers and wages.
These visa programs have become an increasingly important component of the U.S. labor market as employers across a range of industries face persistent workforce shortages driven by demographic shifts, seasonal demand, and geographic mismatches between available jobs and workers. In agriculture, seasonal foreign workers primarily help farms plant, cultivate, and harvest crops that might otherwise face labor constraints. Outside agriculture, H-2B workers support industries that experience predictable seasonal surges, from maintaining parks and resorts to landscaping commercial properties and serving tourists during peak travel seasons. Because many of these industries are concentrated in particular regions, reliance on seasonal foreign labor can have an outsized effect on local economies, influencing business operations, consumer services, and employment patterns throughout the year.
The economic importance of seasonal foreign labor also varies considerably across the country. Agricultural regions often depend heavily on H-2A workers to sustain labor-intensive crop production, while many coastal and tourism-oriented communities rely on H-2B workers to meet seasonal demand in hospitality, recreation, and related services. Examining where employers request these workers—and the occupations they fill—provides a clearer picture of how different local economies have adapted to persistent labor shortages and evolving workforce needs.
This analysis, conducted by Manifest Law—a modern immigration law firm specializing in immigration visas—uses the U.S. Department of Labor’s labor certification data to examine where demand for seasonal foreign labor is most concentrated across occupations, states, and metropolitan areas. The analysis compares both H-2A and H-2B labor certification requests to identify which industries rely most heavily on temporary foreign workers and where seasonal labor demand represents the largest share of the local workforce, highlighting regional differences in how employers meet seasonal staffing needs.
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