Posted on 09/07/2015 6:59:06 AM PDT by Isara
Commemorates Labor Day
HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement commemorating Labor Day:
“Today we celebrate American workers. Since the first days of the frontier, the virtue of work has enlivened our national spirit. It is the ingenuity and grit of countless Americans that has made this a land of opportunity. To the teacher, law enforcement officer, civil servant, factory worker, and countless others, I say thank you. Thank you for working daily to provide for your family, to contribute to our economy, and to keep America strong.
“We should foster a robust economy, and stop stifling growth and opportunity. Under the Obama economy, we have seen the lowest labor force participation since the late 1970s. Families, small businesses, minorities, and young people are being crushed by rising premiums and fewer good-paying jobs due to Obamacare, vast costs from new agency regulations, and a byzantine tax code. Manufacturing has steadily declined during Obama’s presidency, and the industriousness that has empowered workers and pioneered innovation is fading under his watch.
“But with strong Presidential leadership, we can turn things around quickly: we can eliminate onerous regulations, repeal Obamacare, simplify the tax code, and welcome job creation in every sector – from energy to manufacturing to agriculture. We can champion hardworking Americans. If we stand together for working men and women, we will reignite the promise of America.”
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Is your post supposed to convince me to vote for Cruz. It just reminded me of why I can’t fully support him.
On the subject of legal immigration Cruz is an ignoramus.
Why does the answer require doling out more tax funds that are both borrowed against an already super-ponderous debt and filtered through a hugely inefficient bureaucracy?
This is the “conventional politician” side of Cruz. Has Trump been that bad on similar issues?
Ultimately something less than perfect is going to need to be accepted, even if it is powerful in certain dimensions. I don’t see any effort at a sane system of prioritization.
Perhaps it is less bad that Cruz gets this wrong than he is bent on the conventional politician game of “promise to throw money at it.”
Please there is enough money being thrown at things today. We know that can never rebuild Shangri-La. How about throw some freedom at things instead?
Cruz must have a flippin’ death wish. A friend is also an information engineer in the STEM field. He says there is no shortage, and he says that as a participant in interviews of these H1Bs that they are (1)deficient in English no matter what their rating says, and (2) they are deficient in tech knowledge no matter what their rating says. His position is that the English issue alone makes their tech knowledge inapplicable at a 50%+ level.
My fear, HiTech, is that this is the one time that Cruz signals to the Chamber of Commerce that he isn’t really a bad selection for them.
I pray I am wrong about that, but his H1B nonsense EFFECTIVELY signals to the establishment that he CAN be counted on in some of their misdirections: like this, like the Corker Bill, like TPA.
It makes a rabble-rouser like Trump stay in the running, so far as I’m concerned.
If imperfect is OK, then might as well support an imperfect arsonist as an imperfect immigrationist.
The talk about the arsonist only serves to underline how wicked mankind truly is, every single man jack and woman jane of us. Because we also do not get offered an option of NOT moving.
I get the feeling that one of the principle reasons why my son survived the big tech engineer layoff at his company recently is BECAUSE HE IS STUDYING CHINESE.
I suspect they figure that once he has it down pat, they will use him to train the replacements.
The process of looking for American hireables has become a farcical Kabuki dance. The H1Bs look wonderful on the balance sheet today. We can thank uber-progressive regimes for making it of very little attractiveness to look at balance sheets of tomorrow. When Calvinball is the rule you quit trying to project anything.
This high tech redneck right now has been working for a year side by side with a whole bunch of high techs from India.
They have actually been nicer to me than some “red blooded Americans” have. Maybe I’m their token US native (kind of a sardonic thing to say — but I don’t look gift horses in the mouth). Maybe they think I’m good karma for them. I really haven’t dug. I’m letting the good Lord carry me through this situation as long as it lasts, which could be a few years based on the project at hand.
If they want to fly planes into buildings, they will find the way to do it.
As mentioning in my comment #16, I said, "What I posted below is for others to be able to see Ted Cruz's point and circumstance when he proposed this idea. O.K.?"
There is no intention to convince you. I know that I cannot convince you.
Apparently student visas is the easiest way. It gives terrorists a valid reason to be here and live among us until the orders come to destroy us.
There is a current shortage of qualified high-skilled workers in the U.S.
False. “There are 50% more graduates than job openings in the STEM fields.” - http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/05/16/scholars-debunk-claims-of-high-tech-workers-shortage-question-industry-s-free-pass/
Additionally, more H-1B workers mean more jobs for American workers – according to a study by the American Enterprise Institute, for every additional 100 H-1B workers, 183 jobs are created for U.S. citizens.
The AEI study on H-1B was riddled with flaws: see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3271551/posts?page=207#207 and following.
I find Cruz’ position on H1B visas alarming and I think it might partly explain how he is being bought by his Super PACs.
Except for the 500,000 that are replaced by hard working H-1B foreigners.
That's one of the few areas I completely disagree with Cruz on.
By Alan J. Kaplan
Evidence is mounting that American employers are facing a genuine, widespread and worsening gap between the skills they need and the skills the workforce possesses.
In a survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 53 percent of small-business leaders said they faced a “very or fairly major challenge in recruiting non-managerial employees.” Among last year’s Inc. 5000 CEOs, 76 percent said they were experiencing major problems recruiting qualified people.
Indicators suggest the recovering economy will exacerbate those problems. Job openings across America recently reached the highest level since 2001, and the ratio of job seekers to job openings dropped from 7:1 in 2009 to just 1.7:1 in early 2015. The Skills Gap Misery Index (SGMI) — an analysis of monthly job openings and monthly unemployment numbers — has suggested for five years that there is a serious disconnect between the skills of available workers and the skills required in job postings. What’s more, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics now predicts the number of unfilled jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields will climb to a historic high of 1.2 million by 2018.
“We have been talking about this issue for 15 years, but we are just now hitting the pain points in the skills gap,” says Karen Clay Basile, senior director of learning at Tyco University. “Organizations are starting to actually experience the gap, and some are beginning to realize they have to engage in talent-development efforts that are much bigger and more ingrained in their
core operations.”
The world’s largest fire protection and security company, Tyco started to see across-the-board skill gaps, Basile says. So the Princeton, New Jersey-based company created its own university to heighten employee skills in four key areas: leadership and management, sales and sales management, growth and innovation, and change management.
Develop your own people
But recently, Tyco executives realized they needed to expand their training to include a fifth, crucial area — development of early career talent. “Baby boomers are starting to leave the workforce. Long-tenured, highly knowledgeable and highly skilled employees are retiring, and those departures are exposing gaps in the skills of the workforce,” Basile says.
Tyco realized it couldn’t expect to fill those gaps with highly experienced individuals. Instead, it would need to identify high-potential but less experienced people and create training sessions, mentorship programs, project-experience opportunities and other professional development offerings to accelerate their growth.
Several studies have warned that some employers are exacerbating their own skills-gap problems by doggedly searching for experienced individuals rather than hiring individuals with the right education, skills and potential, and developing those people.
Granted, not every company can afford to create its own university. But companies can ease skills gaps within their ranks by providing employees with increased professional development opportunities (an item that was cut in many budgets during the recession), beefing up mentoring programs and creating opportunities for up-and-coming talent to work on advanced projects.
Companies can further lessen the skills gap by supporting apprenticeship programs, partnerships with schools, and collective educational efforts by professional associations or business groups.
Collaborations among businesses, educators and other groups have the potential to address the country’s skills gaps. Here are a few examples of how American companies are effectively partnering with educators.
Talent pipeline management
In late 2014, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation presented a straightforward challenge (and potential solution) to American employers struggling with the skills gap: Start treating talent development the same way you handle supply chain management.
The Foundation unveiled a framework for easing the skills gap, entitled the “Talent Pipeline Management Initiative.” Stressing that “education and workforce systems in the United States are failing to keep pace with the changing needs of the economy and employers are struggling to find skilled workers,” the framework calls on employers to apply the same importance, rigor and skills used in supply-chain management to talent-pipeline management.
In particular, the framework suggests employers:
National collaboration
Since 2007, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions has fostered partnerships among employers, workers, industries, communities and philanthropies to close the skills gap. Specifically, the Fund advances and invests in innovative, evidence-based, employer-led training and credentialing programs.
The results have been impressive. A study of unemployed individuals who have earned more than 37,000 degrees and credentials in Fund-supported programs showed those individuals experienced significantly higher success rates in landing jobs, retaining jobs and earning better pay than individuals in other workforce development programs.
Partners in the schools
Realizing that business needs to take a greater role in educating America’s future workforce, Chevron and Lockheed Martin began investing millions in Project Lead the Way (PLTW) — a national nonprofit that supports STEM education in elementary, middle and high schools. The investment, company executives concurred, could help interest more children in STEM careers and eventually ease growing shortages of STEM workers in America.
The strengthened PLTW operations soon started to yield concrete, unanticipated benefits. In 2009, Toyota partnered with PLTW and some community colleges to find promising workers, provide industry-specific training and close its own skills gap. Together, the partners created the Advanced Manufacturing Technician (AMT) program — a two-year, work-study program that enables high-school graduates to earn associate degrees and get training at Toyota facilities. To date, nearly 90 percent of AMT graduates have gone on to fill skilled technician posts at Toyota. The company is so pleased with the results that it is currently expanding the AMT program throughout North America.
Alan J. Kaplan is founder and CEO of Kaplan Partners., a Philadelphia-based executive search and talent advisory firm. www.kaplanpartners.com. Contact him at alan@kaplanpartners.com.
The US labor market has been slow to recover from the deep recession of 2007–2009. As of September 2011, there were almost seven million fewer jobs than before the downturn. Policymakers have debated numerous ways to increase employment, from government spending to tax policy to training and education initiatives. But relatively little consideration has been given to immigration reform as a way to boost the economy, even though immigration policy affects innovation and job growth. Instead, the immigration debate has become painfully deadlocked, with widespread agreement that the current system is broken but little consensus on how it should be fixed. In these challenging times, more should be done to identify incremental changes to immigration policy that could be made immediately to boost employment for US workers and accelerate the country’s economic recovery.
To better understand the potential for immigration policy to help rejuvenate the US economy, policymakers need answers to basic questions such as whether the foreign born take jobs from the native born or instead create more jobs, on balance, and what types of immigrants generate the most jobs for native-born workers. Although numerous studies have explored how immigration affects natives’ wages, there is relatively little research on how immigration affects employment among US natives. This study seeks to fill this gap and answer the question of what specific changes to immigration policy could speed up American job growth.
There are two basic theories of how immigration affects natives’ labor market outcomes. One is that immigrants have the same skills as US natives and the two groups “compete” for jobs. In this view, immigration reduces natives’ employment. The other theory is that foreign-born workers “complement” US-born workers. That is, immigrants and natives have different skills, and immigration diversifies the workforce. Immigration results in more productive companies, stronger economic growth, and higher employment among US natives.
This study focuses on two groups most frequently identified by policymakers and employers as vital to America’s economy: foreign-born adults with advanced degrees and temporary work visa holders. (For simplicity, all foreign born are referred to here as immigrants, regardless of their visa type.) In trying to establish whether these groups help or hurt job prospects among US natives, the study uses hard numbers—annual data from the US Census Bureau and applications for temporary workers—to perform a state-level comparison that answers the question, “In states with more immigrants, are US natives more or less likely to have a job?” This study also looks at the fiscal effect of the foreign born by comparing the benefits they receive to the taxes they pay.
The analysis yields four main findings:
1. Immigrants with advanced degrees boost employment for US natives. This effect is most dramatic for immigrants with advanced degrees from US universities working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The data comparing employment among the fifty states and the District of Columbia show that from 2000 to 2007, an additional 100 foreign-born workers in STEM fields with advanced degrees from US universities is associated with an additional 262 jobs among US natives. While the effect is biggest for US-educated immigrants working in STEM, immigrants with advanced degrees in general raised employment among US natives during 2000–2007:
• An additional 100 immigrants with advanced degrees in STEM fields from either US or foreign universities is associated with an additional eighty-six jobs among US natives.
• An additional 100 immigrants with advanced degrees—regardless of field or where they obtained their degrees—is associated with an additional 44 jobs among US natives.
2. Temporary foreign workers—both skilled and less skilled—boost US employment. The data show that states with greater numbers of temporary workers in the H-1B program for skilled workers and H-2B program for less-skilled nonagricultural workers had higher employment among US natives. Specifically:
• Adding 100 H-1B workers results in an additional 183 jobs among US natives.
• Adding 100 H-2B workers results in an additional 464 jobs for US natives.
• For H-2A visas for less-skilled agricultural workers, the study found results that were positive, but data were available for such a short period that the results were not statistically significant.
3. The analysis yields no evidence that foreignborn workers, taken in the aggregate, hurt US employment. Even under the current immigration pattern—which is not designed to maximize job creation, has at least eight million unauthorized workers, and prioritizes family reunification—there is no statistically significant effect, either positive or negative, on the employment rate among US natives. The results thus do not indicate that immigration leads to fewer jobs for US natives.
4. Highly educated immigrants pay far more in taxes than they receive in benefits. In 2009, the average foreign-born adult with an advanced degree paid over $22,500 in federal, state, and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA, or Social Security and Medicare) taxes, while their families received benefits one-tenth that size through government transfer programs like cash welfare, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid.
The results here point directly to several policy proposals that would boost US employment. These policies would require neither new taxes nor new spending cuts. Specifically, policymakers could create jobs by doing the following:
• Giving priority to workers who earn advanced degrees from US universities, especially those who work in STEM fields. The results show that the most dramatic gains in US employment come from immigrants who earned advanced degrees at US universities and are employed in STEM fields. Changing permanent and temporary immigration policies to favor holders of advanced degrees from US universities in STEM fields is an obvious step given the demand for highly skilled workers and the extensive investment the country already makes in such students. Without a clear path to stay in the United States, these foreign students will fuel innovation and economic growth in countries that compete with the American economy.
• Increasing the number of green cards (permanent visas) for highly educated workers. This study shows that foreign-born workers with advanced degrees create more jobs for US workers than immigrants overall. Yet only 7 percent of green cards are currently awarded to workers based on their employment. The United States can increase the number of immigrants with advanced degrees in the US workforce by increasing the number of green cards distributed through employment-based categories.
• Making available more temporary visas for both skilled and less-skilled workers. The findings here suggest that expanding the H-1B program for skilled temporary foreign workers would increase employment for US natives. Similarly, this study suggests that the H-2B program for seasonal, less-skilled workers in fields other than agriculture leads to significant employment gains for US natives. But both these programs are severely limited under current law. Only 85,000 H-1B visas and 66,000 H-2B visas are available each fiscal year, and the process for obtaining H- 2B visas is often prohibitively difficult and costly. This study found a positive but not statistically significant relationship between H-2A temporary agricultural visas and employment among US natives. Further study is warranted to explore whether H-2A visas should be increased as well.
America is currently mired in a period of the slowest economic growth seen in several generations, with persistently high unemployment, anemic job growth, and little bipartisan agreement on how to address these pressing problems. Action is required if America is to get back to work. Immigration policy can, and should, be a significant component of America’s economic recovery. Targeted changes to immigration policy geared toward admitting more highly educated immigrants and more temporary workers for specific sectors of the economy would help generate the growth, economic opportunity, and new jobs that America needs.
Madeline Zavodny is a professor of economics at Agnes Scott College
H1-Bs take US citizen worker jobs, and for those that manage to keep some form of employment, the wages drop precipitously, and conditions - notably hours - get horrible.
And then youth - often the sons and daughters of engineers, who see how their parents get treated - make the common-sense decision to abandon a field that now FEATURES guaranteed unemployment.
My life experiences beat the crap out of some copy-and-paste propaganda from those that profit from this abuse.
The AEI study on H-1B was riddled with flaws: see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3271551/posts?page=207#207 and following.
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