> salary is a very direct measure of demand for specific skills
Only economic demand. Not demand in the more common meaning as need.
See the other comment about H-1Bs being for nurses too.
They aren't going to be offered FAANG salaries but that doesn't mean the country doesn't need nurses.
It means there isn't enough money in the part of the system that pays for nurses to compete with FAANG salaries to get them (and all the consequences of that, such as having to pay all other nurses FAANG salaries as well).
If you followed the chain I guess you could argue that the economic demand for advertising is higher than economic demand for healthcare, like it or not. But that would be a really screwed up way of assessing the best way to assign H-1B visas for the benefit of the country.
