The Hartford–Springfield tech work investigation
Employers sought thousands of workers for local tech jobs. Why did they use a specialized-worker visa program?
The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to seek temporary foreign workers for specialized jobs. This investigation asks why employers use it in Hartford, Middlesex, and Tolland counties in Connecticut and Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties in Massachusetts—and whether those patterns align with layoffs, the local supply of skilled workers, outside contracting, or work moving elsewhere.
The clearest finding
Five large technology contractors filed 42% of the region’s applications.
From federal fiscal years 2021 through 2024, the Department of Labor certified 3,124 unique applications for technology jobs in the six-county region. Cognizant, Infosys, LTIMindtree/L&T Infotech/Mindtree, Accenture, and Tata Consultancy Services accounted for 1,310 of them.
Those records establish that the contractors sought workers for local jobs. They do not identify each contractor’s client or prove that the requested workers replaced anyone. Finding the client relationship is now one of the investigation’s central tasks.
Three takeaways
Contractors dominate the top of the list.
Five large technology-services groups filed 1,310 applications—about two out of every five unique applications in the reviewed period.
Local financial and health companies filed directly.
Aetna/CVS Health, Cigna/Evernorth, The Hartford, and MassMutual together filed 267 applications. The complete directory includes 681 employer names.
Applications dropped over four years.
Annual-file applications fell from 945 in 2021 to 637 in 2024. Positions requested fell from 1,886 to 716. The records do not explain why.
What kind of jobs?
Most applications were for software development or systems work—not cybersecurity.
Software roles and general information-technology roles account for nearly 89% of the reviewed applications. Data science accounts for fewer than one in twenty. Cybersecurity accounts for about one in two hundred.
Jobs are grouped primarily by the federal occupation code reported on each application. One application is counted once. Requested positions come from the application-wide total and are also counted once per application.
Historical record
Visa-related technology applications fell during the four comparable years.
Use the buttons to compare applications, workers requested, and typical starting pay. Years shown with stripes or dots were collected differently and should not be compared directly.
Certified applications
Federal fiscal year; jobs located in the six-county region
What are these applications, and why are some years separated?
A Labor Condition Application, often shortened to LCA, is a form an employer files before seeking an H-1B visa for a specialized job. Certification means the form met Department of Labor requirements. It does not mean a visa was issued or a person was hired.
Employer evidence
Which companies appear in the applications?
These counts cover federal fiscal years 2021 through 2024. “Workers requested” is not the number of visas issued or people hired.
Selected company groups
This short table combines verified related company names for easier reading. It is followed by the complete, unfiltered directory.
Every employer in the data
Loading the complete directory…
Inclusion is not an allegation. This directory contains every employer that met the same location and occupation rules. Names are standardized for capitalization and punctuation only. Separate legal companies are kept separate unless a reviewed group appears in the summary above. Industry is not shown because these federal files do not provide a reliable industry for every employer.
Massachusetts layoffs
State records identify 16 layoff or closing notices in our region.
Together, these notices report at least 1,844 affected workers. None of the notices identifies a technology-specific layoff, and they do not tell us what happened to the work afterward. The six largest notices are shown below as context, not evidence of technology-job replacement.
What we still need to prove
The records raise questions. These four answers would turn signals into findings.
- 01
Who received the work?
Contractor applications do not always name the company that ultimately used the worker’s services.
- 02
Were the visas approved?
A certified labor application is only an early step. It is not a final visa decision or proof of hiring.
- 03
Did the jobs match layoffs?
We need job titles, dates, locations, and company or contractor relationships—not merely events in the same year.
- 04
Was local talent available?
College completions, worker skills, unemployment, job postings, and applicant records are needed to test claims of a shortage.
How claims are tested
Every conclusion must connect the same work, company, place, and time.
What would suggest work was replaced?
A documented layoff followed by substantially similar work for the same company or one of its contractors, in a matching place and time period.
What does not prove replacement?
One visa-related application, a foreign office, a layoff notice, or a count of local graduates. Each fact can matter without proving where a particular job went.