Ah, the key is the study/work visa. That will work for some of the people posting here, but not all. Don't those visas require a minimum number of hours per month in an approved school? It might be a good possibility for the original poster.

The US sort of blew the summer employment visa issue here. They normally issue about 60,000 per year, but give at least one automatic renewal to anyone who had the same visa in the previous three years (I think). However, when the law was renewed last year, that provision was omitted, leaving only the 60,000 new visas in place. That effectively halved the number available.

Sometimes when things like that happen, other countries retaliate by reducing the number of visas they will issue. These are often tit for tat exchanges, and we've lowered the numbers.