Nearly 600,000 H-1B petitions are approved each fiscal year, and a small number of employers account for the bulk of them. When those same employers file WARN Act notices, the impact ripples through hundreds of thousands of visa holders.

This article is a starting point: which sponsor categories are concentrating risk in 2026, how to read the signals, and how to query our live data to check any employer yourself.

Looking for live data on a specific employer?

Run an H-1B risk check · Browse the full H-1B sponsor database · See current WARN filings

Why This List Matters

If you're an H-1B holder, the question isn't just "is my employer a top sponsor?" It's "is my employer a top sponsor whose layoff would put me on a 60-day clock?"

An employer's H-1B volume is a proxy for two things:

  • How many visa holders depend on them. A WARN notice from a top-10 H-1B sponsor can affect thousands of visa workers in a single filing.
  • How transfer-friendly the labor market is. When top sponsors lay off, the surge of available H-1B workers makes transfers harder for everyone.

Sponsor Categories Showing 2026 WARN Activity

Rather than freeze a list that goes stale by next quarter, here's the pattern by sponsor category. To see live counts, click through to the linked data page for each.

1. Big Tech — the dominant H-1B category

Major U.S. tech companies (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple) have together accounted for hundreds of thousands of H-1B approvals over the past decade. Throughout 2023–2025 several of them filed WARN notices in California, Washington, and New York — the same states where their H-1B concentration is highest.

Live lookup: All tech sponsors by approval count · California WARN filings

2. India-based outsourcing firms

Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, HCL, and Tech Mahindra have historically been among the very top H-1B sponsors by raw volume. Their U.S. WARN footprint tends to be smaller per filing but more frequent — often tied to client contract changes rather than mass restructuring.

Live lookup: Search any of these names in the WARN database or run them through the Risk Checker.

3. Financial services — H-1B concentration in NYC and NJ

Banks, investment firms, and insurance carriers (JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, and several large insurance carriers) are major H-1B sponsors. WARN filings in this segment cluster in New York and New Jersey, where the 90-day notice rule and mandatory severance (NJ) provide additional runway for affected workers.

Live lookup: New York WARN filings · New Jersey WARN filings

4. Consulting — Big Four and the next tier

Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, Accenture, and the next tier of consulting firms each sponsor thousands of H-1Bs per year. WARN activity in this segment is typically smaller per filing but spread across multiple states.

5. Healthcare and pharma

Hospitals, health systems, and large pharma companies are persistent H-1B sponsors, particularly for physicians, researchers, and IT roles. WARN filings in this category are less common but tend to be concentrated when restructuring hits.

6. Retail and e-commerce logistics

Major retailers and e-commerce operators sponsor a meaningful number of H-1B technology workers. WARN filings in 2024–2026 have hit warehouse and corporate roles in California, Texas, and Washington.

How to Check Any Employer in Real Time

The most reliable way to check a specific sponsor isn't a list — it's a query. We expose three free tools:

H-1B Risk Checker (web tool)

Run a free risk check on any employer name. The tool returns:

  • WARN filings (count, dates, affected employees)
  • SEC 8-K filings tagged "Item 2.05 — Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities" (the restructuring trigger)
  • Bankruptcy filings (Chapter 7, 11)
  • H-1B approval volume and trend
  • LCA prevailing wage data for the employer's roles

H-1B Sponsor Database

Browse all H-1B sponsors filtered by state, industry, or approval volume. Click any sponsor to see their full record.

Free API

If you want to script the lookups (e.g., to monitor a list of employers you might apply to), get a free API key. The free tier gives you 25 calls per day — enough to check 25 employers daily.

Example query (with your API key):

curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://warnfirehose.com/api/risk-signal/company/Google"

The Three Signals That Actually Predict Layoffs

If you're watching an employer in real time, these are the three signals that tend to precede a WARN filing by weeks or months:

  1. SEC 8-K Item 2.05 filing. Public companies are required to disclose a "material" restructuring within 4 business days. We track every 8-K with this item across all SEC filers. SEC filings page.
  2. H-1B LCA filings dropping quarter-over-quarter. When an employer stops filing new LCAs, it usually means the hiring freeze has already started.
  3. Bankruptcy or Chapter 11 filing. Almost always preceded by months of WARN activity. Bankruptcy database.

If You're On an H-1B Right Now

Whether or not your employer is on a "top sponsor" list, the playbook is the same:

For HR teams and immigration counsel

If you advise H-1B holders professionally, our API and data exports let you monitor sponsor stability across your entire client base. See pricing — Starter is $49/mo with 1,000 calls/day.

Why "Top Sponsor" Lists Get Stale Fast

USCIS publishes H-1B approval data quarterly, and the U.S. Department of Labor publishes LCA data annually. Sponsor rankings shift meaningfully every quarter as M&A, layoffs, and hiring freezes ripple through. That's why we update our database daily and surface live counts on every employer page — rather than freeze a list that's wrong by the time you read it.

If you've made it this far and want a single bookmark to keep handy: /opportunities/h1b-risk-checker. It's free, fast, and pulls from the same data source we license to hedge funds.