While conceding my point that foreign investment won’t be as good for the U.S. as domestic investment, the first commentator sees little difference between companies employing contractors to achieve added efficiencies and companies using machines for the same purpose. The commentator asks:
If a company decides to outsource its IT functions by 40 percent, is it not better that we capture some of that 40 percent domestically?
The second commentator makes the provocative point that much IT inefficiency is due to an oversupply of programmers. This flies in the face of lobbying by tech companies, which have been trying for several years now to get limits eased on H-1B visas.
A number of experts share the commentator’s opinion, however. In March, I wrote about several studies that show little evidence of IT staff shortages. Duke University’s Vivek Wadhwa, and Ron Hira, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, both note that IT salaries are not rising as steeply as might be expected in the event of a shortage. And Hal Salzman of the Urban Institute contends that the industry’s “unrealistic expectations,” rather an actual shortage of folks with IT skills, is making it difficult to fill job slots.
Earlier this year, I interviewed Norm Matloff, a professor at the University of California-Davis, who believes the tech industry is fabricating a false talent shortage in order to push for more H-1B visas, which allow them to employ younger — and far less expensive — workers.
The reader who commented on my post about the activities of Indian companies in the U.S. suggests that growth in other kinds of jobs, rather than growing the ranks of IT workers, will drive demand for software. Making a case for broader immigration reform, the commentator writes:
The best way to create programming jobs is to bring in other workers. Factory workers create a demand for ERP software; lawyers create a demand for legal support software; truck drivers create a demand for logistics applications; retail clerks create a demand for point-of-sale systems.
Our current philosophy that the way to have a high-tech economy is to have an economy that consists of 100 percent programmers is faulty thinking. If the entire economy consisted of 100 percent programmers, they’d keep each other busy with design specifications, bug fixes, and test plans. There’d be no shortage of work – but nothing would get done.
Of course, immigration is no easy fix. Sweeping legislation was shot down in the U.S. last summer, and other countries struggle nearly as much as we do with the hot-button issue.
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Category: H1-B Visas, Staffing, World Markets, India
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4 Comments »
Comment by Bob — July 16, 2008 at 10:09 am
For some real information on skilled worker shortages, H-1b visas go to
www.eng-i.com/E-Newsletters.htm
Comment by Weaver — July 16, 2008 at 10:14 am
Your referenced post “India’s Investment in U.S.: Not Exactly a Win/Win ” might have been a little bit light on the estimate of foreign workers in the US working for BPOs.
Top 20 H-1B Employer list 2006:
2006 H-1B and L-1 visas in Top 20 list — Total visas = 48,159
Business Process Outsourcing Specialists (12)
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED = 8293
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED = 5202
WIPRO LIMITED = 4841
SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD = 3830
PATNI COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC = 1831
HCL AMERICA INC = 1421
LARSEN & TOUBRO INFOTECH LIMITED = 1090
I-FLEX SOLUTIONS INC = 876
MPHASIS CORPORATION = 809
TECH MAHINDRA AMERICAS INC = 781
COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS U S CORP = 5746
LANCESOFT INC = 645
Total H-1B and L-1 visas reported = 35,365
Percentage of “Top 20″ Total = 73.43%
Accounting Services (2)
ERNST & YOUNG LLP = 913
DELOITTE & TOUCHE = 2067
Total H-1B and L-1 visas reported = 2980
Percentage of “Top 20″ Total = 6.19%
Producers of Tangible Goods (6)
MICROSOFT = 3285
IBM CORPORATION = 2367
INTEL CORP = 1222
ORACLE USA INC = 1198
CISCO SYSTEMS INC = 893
MOTOROLA INC = 849
Total H-1B and L-1 visas reported = 9814
Percentage of “Top 20″ Total = 20.38%
Source: GRASSLEY, DURBIN RELEASE NEW INFORMATION ON L VISAS
Data: http://grassley.senate.gov/public/releases/2007/062620072.pdf
The B-1 visa allows foreign workers to work in the U.S. for equipment installation and trainging — why do we need 6 year H-1B and 5 year L-1B visas?
One would think that if a foreign firm wants to do business in the U.S. they can hire and train U.S. citizens.
Comment by Jake Leone — July 16, 2008 at 11:09 am
Employers are not wanting for employees.
In May, Oracle laid 500 hi-tech workers from its acquisition of BEA. I interviewed 2 of these workers, both were programmers were working on WEB 2.0 projects at BEA. If companies such as Oracle are really hurting for people with advanced programming skills, then why did they lay off the 500 Silicon Valley hi-tech workers?
The tech worker shortage is a big lie.
This lie is perpetrated by officials at the highest levels of companies of like ORACLE, MICROSOFT, CISCO, and GOOGLE.
There is no IT worker shortage. After interviewing these 2 candidates, we went on to interview several more, for the same position.
The h-1b Visa is overwhelmingly being used to import IT workers (not doctors and nurses or workers we actually need).
The h-1b is used to discriminate against U.S. workers. And this documented by recent judgements (and video).
Hey, who can blame Bill Gates, he wants low-cost indentured servitude. Who wants a worker with human rights, when you can put a ball and chain around a foreign worker, pay them half what you pay an american. And use that same foreign worker to move jobs overseas (where the pay isn’t even 1/10 that of the U.S.).
The whole thing is a big-fat greedy lie, this kind of lying that would land people in jail for contempt. But not, Sir Gates, he’s royalty.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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