Posted on 01/23/2015 2:15:44 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
..............[U.S. Senator Jeff] Sessions last week accused the tech industry of perpetuating a "hoax" by claiming there is a shortage of qualified U.S. tech workers.
"The tech industry's promotion of expanded temporary visas -- such as the H-1B -- and green cards is driven by its desire for cheap, young and immobile labor," wrote Sessions, in a memo he sent last week to fellow lawmakers.
Last summer, Sessions attacked Microsoft's push for more H-1B visas as it laid off 18,000 employees. Now, as subcommittee chairman, Sessions will have the ability to conduct investigations and hold oversight hearings.
That Senate memo was Sessions' rebuttal to efforts by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, who is seeking an H-1B increase.
The contrast between Sessions and Hatch on this issue could not be sharper. Hatch said, "Our high-skilled worker shortage has become a crisis." Sessions, meanwhile, responded: "Not only is there no shortage of qualified Americans ready, able, and eager to fill these jobs, there is a huge surplus of Americans trained in these fields who are unable to find employment."
Hatch introduced legislation, with the support of some Democratic lawmakers, to raise the H-1B cap from 85,000 to 195,000. But the bill creates what may be an unlimited influx of foreign workers by eliminating a cap on people who earn an advanced degree in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field from a U.S. school. The IEEE-USA says the bill will destroy the U.S. tech workforce.
Many people who graduate with STEM degrees don't get jobs in the field. An Economic Policy Institute study last year found that the supply of STEM graduates exceeds by 2-to-1 the number of graduates who get hired.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
No one is perfect. I don’t require a politician to be perfect, just almost. :D
Jeff Sessions bump for later...
I have found that their work product is not as good as Americans. Asian are the exception. Every place I have been that has an offshore contingent we would spend the first part of the day fixing what they worked on overnight. They are fine at a theoretical level but have a hard time translating that to an actual product. We were always in “design” mode.
I have also noticed a trend in the Indians. They job hope every 18 month to 3 years and if you follow their resumes they are touring the US while working and sending money back home.
Roger that. What I've seen is that if you can build them a box to work in, with *very* specific parameters - they do OK. BUT, as soon as you say "Well, we'd like something like - but not exactly like - this...." ......forget it. You're lost.
In IT, where more often than not, the people defining the desired product don't themselves know what they want, this is a real problem.
At the end of the day, my experience is that whatever you save by hiring cheap H1B's, you immediately expend on all of the additional management and documentation that's required. But, there are plenty of managers out there who think, "Jeez, this model has NEVER been successful....but that's probably because I've never tried it!". :-)
The quota should expand and contract with the economy, and for many years it did. During the 90's IT boom the quota had expanded to close to 200,000 per year but following the post IT contraction the quota fell to 50,000.
It was during that time that the anti-immigrant wave swept thru the GOP and even tho the economy would expand, the minuteman republicans would successfully block attempts to expand the quota.
Then the economy collapsed and there was no need for them. Now with the recovery, they again want to expand the quota.
This is the best part of guest workers, you can expand and contract as needed. This also the best part of a dual use visa like the H1B. You get to test drive the guest worker before you allow him to convert to the permanent visa.
“I read a report the other day that incomes in those fields have stagnated wages for 7+ years. Is there any wonder why kids don’t enter those areas of study?”
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It seems to me that wages are stagnant everywhere now. I was hearing reports of good wages in the oil boom areas but with the drop in oil prices that may be a thing of the past.
“Any of them can be HRC or Warren.”
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I assume that was supposed to read can BEAT rather than can be. I recall that back in early 2008 people were telling me that any Republican could beat Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
Yep. Too true.
You forgot about the massive regulatory load, workers comp, EPA, OSHA, etc. etc. etc.
Even if they DID reduce the corp. taxes, they’d just front load it all by the above means....
Until the Republic is restored, and States institute their own (if they WANT/can), will we see what REALLY does/doesn’t work. Fedzilla has it so skewed, there’s no way to tell currently
It is a hoax. I see companies pass on Americans all the time to hire the cheaper foreigner.
Good point;>)
I've actually been seeing a lot of ourright incompetence from India especially. It's actually getting worse as time goes on. I work network stuff a lot, and am running into a lot of alleged "engineers" with serious lack of knowledge about fundamental concepts. Oh, they can push buttons to input data into established processes, but they have absolutely no idea of how it all works together, and if you step even slightly outside of the pre-programmed box, they are worse than useless, because they really don't like to admit what they do not know. That, in itself seems to be a cultural thing, and it doesn't help them at all. Or me for that matter.
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