Industry comparison

Information vs Finance & Insurance

NAICS-sector comparison built from the H1B Report corpus. Filing volume, distinct sponsor count, sponsor concentration and dominant occupations.

Summary

Finance & Insurance and Information are two of the largest H-1B sponsoring sectors in the US economy. Finance & Insurance generated 588,317 total H-1B filings across 9,250 employers, while Information led with 624,447 filings from 11,007 employers — a difference of 36,130 filings and 1,757 additional sponsors.

The Information sector's edge in both raw filing volume and employer breadth reflects the sector's scale and reliance on specialty occupations in software development, data science, and IT infrastructure. Finance & Insurance remains highly competitive for H-1B talent, particularly in roles like quantitative analysis, financial engineering, and risk management, though it sponsors fewer employers overall.

Both sectors consistently rank among the top H-1B destinations. The choice between them for visa sponsorship depends on role type: Information emphasizes technical and software roles, while Finance & Insurance focuses on quantitative and financial expertise.

Finance & Insurance vs Information H-1B
H-1B filings by sector comparison
Information sector H-1B sponsorship
Finance Insurance H-1B employers
NAICS 51 vs 52 H-1B

Sector A

Information

NAICS 51Rank #3

Sector B

Finance & Insurance

NAICS 52Rank #5

Key metrics

Filings / employer is a concentration hint — higher means a few sponsors do most of the filing.

Metric	Information	Finance & Insurance
Total filings	624,447▲	588,317
National share %	6.69%▲	6.30%
Distinct sponsors	11,007▲	9,250
Filings / employer	57	64
Rank	#3▲	#5
Top sponsor	Microsoft Corporation	GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. LLC
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

Year-over-year H-1B demand within each sector.

Information

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	18,990
FY2011	20,340
FY2012	21,781
FY2013	21,714
FY2014	24,089
FY2015	27,468
FY2016	30,224
FY2017	32,458
FY2018	37,065
FY2019	39,766
FY2020	40,038
FY2021	70,034
FY2022	60,549
FY2023	54,770
FY2024	49,619
FY2025	55,080
FY2026	20,462

Finance & Insurance

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	18,669
FY2011	18,090
FY2012	18,557
FY2013	19,216
FY2014	22,794
FY2015	27,044
FY2016	28,760
FY2017	32,036
FY2018	38,729
FY2019	39,814
FY2020	39,659
FY2021	69,522
FY2022	51,485
FY2023	51,662
FY2024	42,693
FY2025	50,637
FY2026	18,950