Industry comparison

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services vs Educational Services

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

Summary

Educational Services vs. Professional, Scientific & Technical Services: H-1B Filing Comparison

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services (NAICS 54) vastly outpaces Educational Services (NAICS 61) in H-1B sponsorship volume. Professional services has filed 5.36 million H-1B applications across 57,468 employers, while Educational Services accounts for 613,346 filings from 6,945 employers. This roughly 9-to-1 gap reflects the tech-heavy demand in professional services sectors including software, engineering, and consulting.

Educational Services, though smaller in total H-1B filings, maintains a substantial employer base relative to its volume—roughly one employer per 88 filings. Professional services operates at a higher scale with one employer per 93 filings, indicating both sectors employ H-1B workers but at dramatically different volumes. Professional services remains the dominant H-1B sector nationally.

Educational Services H-1B filings
Professional Services H-1B sponsorship
H-1B sector comparison
NAICS 54 vs NAICS 61
H-1B by industry

Sector A

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

NAICS 54Rank #1

Sector B

Educational Services

NAICS 61Rank #4

Key metrics

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

Metric	Professional, Scientific & Technical Services	Educational Services
Total filings	5,362,182▲	613,346
National share %	57.46%▲	6.57%
Distinct sponsors	57,468▲	6,945
Filings / employer	93	88
Rank	#1▲	#4
Top sponsor	INFOSYS LIMITED	University of Michigan
Top occupation	Software Developers	Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary

Filings by fiscal year

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

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	162,393
FY2011	184,930
FY2012	237,548
FY2013	270,996
FY2014	334,578
FY2015	420,866
FY2016	442,248
FY2017	408,878
FY2018	415,563
FY2019	418,841
FY2020	341,992
FY2021	433,810
FY2022	318,868
FY2023	324,927
FY2024	279,362
FY2025	273,304
FY2026	93,078

Educational Services

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	39,175
FY2011	34,146
FY2012	35,379
FY2013	34,165
FY2014	33,842
FY2015	34,126
FY2016	34,254
FY2017	32,741
FY2018	34,175
FY2019	34,638
FY2020	29,870
FY2021	48,175
FY2022	36,695
FY2023	46,343
FY2024	41,453
FY2025	45,692
FY2026	18,477