> In any given year, there are only 85k new H1B visas.

Minor nitpick, but if you get an H-1 visa to work at a university, it's not part of that 85K limit.

But yes, your point is valid. And the headline is editorialized - they cherry picked the year 2011, because it's the lowest. It was the lowest because we were knee deep in the financial crisis, and many companies suspended/reduced their reliance on foreign labor precisely because they'd have a hard time convincing the government that they couldn't find a qualified local.