How to recruit in the USA5 min read

This week, we have decided to focus on a country that still attracts a lot of workers: the United States of America. Sometimes decried or considered as outdated, the “American Dream” is still alive and topical, for better or for worse. Even though moving out to the USA has become more and more difficult, it remains possible if you find a job or if the opportunity to develop your activity internationally arises. Beforehand, you have to decide if it will be a move on the short term or on the long term, because visas and other paper work things are not that easy to get. We will then try to give you, recruiters and job seekers, the best advice in order to decide if your professional career has a future in the USA.

The labor market

Before deciding to leave your country for the United States, and for any kind of activity, you must learn more about the reality of the American job market. Over the last decade, the United States faced a major financial crisis and many Americans lost their job. However, the country managed to overcome these difficulties and there had even been many job creations. In 2016, the unemployment rate was representing around 5% of the working population. Even though this is a very good rate, it prevented the salaries from growing.

A need in local expert assessment

Knowing the American labor market is therefore a major first step in your recruitment process. You may be doing an international recruitment, it still remains local. To help you in local recruitment, you should rely on someone that already knows the local labor market. The American states all have different laws that varies between other states and even from the federal state. In order to get your visas and the do things the right way, a local expert in the labor market is definitely needed.

Sectors hiring

Even though all sectors have vacancies, the sectors hiring international workers are in the services sector, that is to say in IT, Education, Medicine, Engineering and R&D as well. Be careful, this a very competitive sector, and bear in mind that in the USA, there are not many trade unions and they tend to be more liberal than anywhere else, even in work. This is what they call the “Hire and Fire”, that is to say this freedom to quickly hire someone as quickly as to fire someone else. There is not much protection.

Job interviews

As you may be aware, job interview rules are not the same everywhere. In the United States, you must not ask personal questions, such as the candidate marital status, his or her age, their religious beliefs. And of course you must not use discriminating remarks, but this is an international rule and should not happen in 2017 anymore. Also, keep in mind that Americans do like to negotiate their salary, this is something very common in the USA, less than in Europe for example.

Salary, benefits and working conditions

If you come from abroad, you may not have the same salary even if you do the same work. In fact, you have to base you remuneration on the country’s one and not compare it with the one you had in your previous country. Because in the USA, there are other things, the benefits, that take a huge part in the total month wage. Benefits cover the social protection not health care but retirement and unemployment. HR professionals have to note that they will attract more candidates if they can offer a social protection. Finally some figures: American workers often work 50 hours per week, and some of them have to accumulate jobs to live properly. There are also less annual days off, compared to European countries for instance.

Working visas and other documents

Obtaining a working visa and a Green Card is a long and fastidious conundrum, but without it, you can barely work there.

With a touristic visa, you are not allowed to look for a job. Remember that you can only stay in the USA for 90 days without a residence visa. To stay in the USA, you must have been granted both residence and working permits, and they last 6 years. You can have an extension or you can ask for a Green Card. There are different types of visas:

• H1 B Visa: a working visa for foreign workers that have a college degree or a similar degree
• Special visas for laborers, teachers and farmers.

If you decide to recruit a foreign worker, in order to get the visas and permits, you must show to the US Department of Labour that you could not find a suitable American employee for a certain position.

Jobboard Finder’s top job boards in the United States:

• Nexxt (Was Beyond)
• Craigslist Jobs
• Upwork
• Government Jobs
• Dice

For both employers and job seekers, Jobboard Finder is the first decision-making tool for recruitment campaigns and job searches. By gathering tools and services that recruiters can use to search and compare employment websites from all over the world to find the best job search sites, it really is the best solution for recruitment needs. Today recruiters can also purchase job advertisements for the media they have selected and manage their postings directly from our unique platform. Then they can rate and review the job boards they have used in the past for our community of professionals to see.
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Author: Anne-Marie