As the debate rages over H-1B visas, the nonpartisan Brookings Institution has come out with a fascinating study analyzing the geography our nation's H-1B temporary high-skilled workforce. The long-range project, entitled "The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas," examines demand for and supply of H-1B workers between 2001 and 2011.

The research, conducted by Neil Ruiz, Jill Wilson, and Shyamali Choudhury of the Brookings Institution, yields some interesting findings:

• In 92 of the 106 high demand metropolitan areas, science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) occupations accounted for more than half of all requests.
• The highest demand for H-1B's comes from areas with the lowest levels of college graduate unemployment, suggesting that immigrants compliment, rather than substitute, U.S. citizen labor.
  
• H-1B visa fees designated for skills training and STEM education for U.S. citizens have not been proportionately distributed to metro areas requesting the highest number of H-1B workers.

"The U.S. government should develop an independent standing commission on labor and immigration removed from politics that can adjust the cap for H-1B visa applicants based on local employer skills needs and regional economic indicators," the researchers suggested. "The federal government should also channel H-1B visa fees to skills training in areas that are currently being filled by H-1B workers at the metropolitan level."

In the D.C. Metro Area, computer engineers are the most common occupation for H-1B visa holders and educational and research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, the University of Maryland, and Prince George's County Public Schools are the top H-1B employers.