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Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony
LA Times ^ | August 1, 2015 | Michael Hiltzik

Posted on 08/04/2015 6:44:35 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom

[...] Yet many studies suggest that the STEM shortage is a myth. In computer science and engineering, says Hal Salzman, an expert on technology education at Rutgers, "the supply of graduates is substantially larger than the demand for them in industry." Qualcomm is not the only high-tech company to be aggressively downsizing. The computer industry, led by Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, cut nearly 60,000 jobs last year, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The electronics industry pared an additional 20,000 positions.

[...] As we've reported, the majority of H-1B visas go not to marquee high-tech companies such as Google and Microsoft, but to outsourcing firms including the India-based giants Infosys and Tata. They're not recruiting elite STEM graduates with unique skills, but contract workers to replace American technical employees — who often are required to train their foreign-born replacement as a condition of receiving their severance. This is the scandalous method of cost-cutting used by companies such as Southern California Edison, which outsourced the jobs of some 500 information technology employees, as we reported in February.

For such companies, raising the visa limit is about exploiting a loophole in immigration law to save money — workers on these temporary visas are typically paid less than U.S. employees doing the same work, and more complaisant with American bosses because they'll be deported if they lose their jobs. [...]

It's unlikely that such hard numbers will silence the drumbeat for more high-tech immigration, Teitelbaum says, as long as big tech companies have Congress' attention. "The lobbying opposition is weak," he says. "There's no interest group that's as well organized and financed to say that this is an emperor with no clothes on."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corporatewelfare; h1b; techindustry
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To: cripplecreek

The story often is multi faceted.

Spiritually, the US has let devils in the door — and I emphatically do not mean people! I mean literal devils. These are what push people to do counterproductive and evil things.


21 posted on 08/04/2015 7:08:00 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: ConservingFreedom

It’s not phoney. There are no US candidates.


22 posted on 08/04/2015 7:09:09 AM PDT by TexasGunLover ("Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists."-- President George W. Bush)
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To: ConservingFreedom
Not every graduate has the skills that these companies need. A large number will not cut it. I would say the same thing about software engineers from India, a significant portion can't cut it. By the way, a majority of graduate from Computer Science Masters and PhD programs in the U.S., are fr foreign.

People like Michael Hiltzik know nothing about the industry they are writing about.

I would like to see a study of how much companies save by hiring an H1-B, if they save any money at all. To get an H1-B employee, the company has to shell out $15k-$20k upfront in legal costs etc. And the next day, that employee can take their H1-B to another company, and the original company is out everything.

I knew a company that refused to hire H1-Bs, because they shelled out $40k on two H1-B employees and they were hired away within a few months at higher salaries.

I am not sure companies save any money on H1-Bs, but the Visa they do use to undercut U.S. workers I don't hear people mention at all.

The Visa that is really allowing U.S. companies to pay less for labor is the L1 Visa. L1s can't jump to other companies, unless that company gives them an H1-B. Most L1s are stuck at their company and have little leverage to get higher pay, like H1-Bs so. Companies also lie to these employees about sponsoring citizenship. Also, I believe there is no limit on L1s. The catch is, the employee has to work for the company one year outside the U.S. before they can come to the U.S. How come no one complains about L1s?

23 posted on 08/04/2015 7:12:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: ConservingFreedom
>>and more complaisant with American bosses because they'll be deported if they lose their jobs.





It is incumbent upon the honorable craftsman to be aware
of whether or not his services are being used
as a means to accomplish evil ends -
and to act (or NOT) accordingly.

24 posted on 08/04/2015 7:16:25 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: W.
"Corporate greed undermining both America and American workers to make more money. -- "

Is that not what capitalism and free markets are all about, making the most profit possible utilizing the principles of supply and demand? Truth, criticism, or sarcasm?

25 posted on 08/04/2015 7:16:39 AM PDT by buckalfa (I am feeling much better now.)
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To: cripplecreek

>>Our colleges are giving a lot of degrees to completely useless people.

“I don’t need to know the truth - I’ve got kids to send to college”
—A. Tech Manager


26 posted on 08/04/2015 7:20:51 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: driftdiver

You actually raise another good point—the more onerous it becomes, through regulations, taxes and laws—to take on regular employees, the more readily companies will look for ways around the burden.


27 posted on 08/04/2015 7:21:16 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: mountainlion

This number keeps going up, is there a valid source for this data? (un-molested data)..


28 posted on 08/04/2015 7:21:32 AM PDT by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: ConservingFreedom

29 posted on 08/04/2015 7:22:14 AM PDT by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: Lazamataz
I can confirm. However, an average-to-poor H1B generally costs way more than a correctly-paid good American IT guy.

This is absolutely true. Usually (from what I have witnessed) the H1B comes from a contracting company. The contracting company charges the business an arm and a leg while paying the H1B less than an American Tech.

30 posted on 08/04/2015 7:26:29 AM PDT by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Rush said there were 92 million unemployed. There must be over 8 million retired and others that would work if there was an opportunity.


31 posted on 08/04/2015 7:32:57 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Somebody send this article to Ted Cruz, he wants a 5x increase in H1b visas. Its my main issues I wish Ted would flip flop on.

Maybe this article would convince Ted its ONLY about wages.


32 posted on 08/04/2015 7:39:06 AM PDT by Zenjitsuman (New Boss Nancy Pelosi)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

I actually thought of starting a company, manned only by good Americans, called “Outsourcing Disaster Mitigation, Ltd”


33 posted on 08/04/2015 7:42:46 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Dear Jeb Bush..... Trump upped his game. Up yours!.... Love, Laz.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Defending H-1B is despicable.

Cruzers need to get a grip. Your boy wants to increase it fold.

The H-1B program almost ruined me in the late 90's. Almost lost my house. I will not stand for any excise to keep this fascist program around.

Kill it.

34 posted on 08/04/2015 7:42:54 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: nickcarraway

Hey Nick stuff it. Your boy Cruz is a H-1B slut.


35 posted on 08/04/2015 7:44:09 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: cripplecreek

“Being considered technically trained does not equal being a reliable or useful worker. Our colleges are giving a lot of degrees to completely useless people.”

No kidding. I have worked with people with Comp Sci degrees who know almost nothing about solving software problems. My degree is in Computer Programming so it’s a bit easier for me, but I sometimes wonder what some of these colleges are teaching because it isn’t technical competence.


36 posted on 08/04/2015 7:45:04 AM PDT by navyguy (The National Reset Button is pushed with the trigger finger.)
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To: ConservingFreedom

After awhile it becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy” because Americans don’t want to go into those industries knowing that they’ll just be passed for H1Bs.


37 posted on 08/04/2015 7:45:17 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: buckalfa

Corporations want free access to all markets all the time but want government intervention in the labor process artificially importing “workers” to lower market wages. Some “captains of industry”.


38 posted on 08/04/2015 7:45:42 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ConservingFreedom

Can’t believe this appeared in the L.A. Slimes.


39 posted on 08/04/2015 7:50:15 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: ConservingFreedom
“Sad to say, one sees FReepers parroting those myths.”

Sad but true. The aristocracy has decided to bring back slavery and have begun calling Americans lazy, stupid, nativist, racist and worse, just like the slave-owning aristocracy called southern whites crackers and white trash. Antebellum whites who did not own slaves had to compete against slave labor and as a group were impoverished and exploited as well.

Are we as Americans going to let a tiny, globalist “new world order” aristocracy strip us of our God-given freedoms, culture, and inheritance that the Founders and our ancestors spilled their blood for and turn us into slaves?

40 posted on 08/04/2015 7:53:49 AM PDT by WMarshal (“A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge" - F. Douglas)
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