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Nonetheless, In Houston for 2002 there are a grand total of 41 H1B1 hires.

You obviously didn't look too hard. Just one search for Programmer/Analyists in Houston returned over 220 H1-B workers on one page, where the search was limited to 500 records so only 10 pages were returned. As I said, there were OVER 220 on the FIRST page!

Now if you look at the OTHER categories, you'd see that the number of H1-B workers in Houston is ASTRONOMICAL.

You & others w/real life exp. are 100% correct. I know because of 30+ yrs. in international HR consulting w/an employment-staffing expertise that has earned me a place in Who's Who In the World for last 10 yrs.
The drain of living wage jobs has been relentless thoughout all of my career--we (and the rest of the world) have always had indentured workers of various kinds, but the current disasters started w/off shore manufacturing that few of us worried about because we were only to glad to buy the cheap goods it produced. (Remember the 1970s plea: "Look for the union label"?)
Then, female-dominated office/white collar jobs were negatively affected by a combination of inefficient but popular technologies (Where did the promised "paperless" office go?) & crappy, low-bid temp contractors & outsources like Manpower, Kinkos, Pitney Bowes, Wachenhut, et al (Where are the improvements in service they promised?)
All these & more were touted as another advance in just-in-time hiring.
Now, after a brief respite during the dot.com bubble & in specific areas of the country at different times, the on-going destruction of the "permanent job" (ie: stable, long-term employment at a compensation package suffient to have a dignified, middle-class existance) that attacked blue, white & pink collars has reached gold collars...tech & other skilled, educated, professional jobs (incl. medicine, law, acctg, teaching, etc.) w/HB1s only one of the factors.

What of unions, you ask? Corrupt, I answer. And foolishly focused for too long on dying industries plus, at best, suffering in the wilderness because of the mistaken snobbery of those who thought of themselves as professionals aligned w/the upper-most tier of management. (Big mistake. Just ask anyone from Andersen what their CPA & 80 hr weeks have bought them in the way of security).

As for the shortages that caused (sic) HB1 mania, there is no real labor supply gap--never was, in spite of our shrinking "native" birth rate, only a shortage of educated workers & avenues for affordable, practical retraining for the displaced & those w/outmoded skills. We, as a people, have failued to recognize the truth of what was happening to us & take care of business. Now we are paying for it.

Answers: Don't blame those who take advantage of our weaknesses. Save your money. Get out of debt & into the faces of legislators, political parties & trade/professional associations to force reversal of open border policies; create professional unions; demand good public schools; demand tax cheats/employers (of all sizes!) hiring illegals be punished...and...never again fall for the illusion of "team oriented/people focused" organizations.

It's dog eat dog & will be forever, no matter how much we & our bosses wish it weren't. We just have to deal with it!

You & others w/real life exp. are 100% correct. I know because of 30+ yrs. in international HR consulting w/an employment-staffing expertise that has earned me a place in Who's Who In the World for last 10 yrs.
The drain of living wage jobs has been relentless thoughout all of my career--we (and the rest of the world) have always had indentured workers of various kinds, but the current disasters started w/off shore manufacturing that few of us worried about because we were only to glad to buy the cheap goods it produced. (Remember the 1970s plea: "Look for the union label"?)
Then, female-dominated office/white collar jobs were negatively affected by a combination of inefficient but popular technologies (Where did the promised "paperless" office go?) & crappy, low-bid temp contractors & outsources like Manpower, Kinkos, Pitney Bowes, Wachenhut, et al (Where are the improvements in service they promised?)
All these & more were touted as another advance in just-in-time hiring.
Now, after a brief respite during the dot.com bubble & in specific areas of the country at different times, the on-going destruction of the "permanent job" (ie: stable, long-term employment at a compensation package suffient to have a dignified, middle-class existance) that attacked blue, white & pink collars has reached gold collars...tech & other skilled, educated, professional jobs (incl. medicine, law, acctg, teaching, etc.) w/HB1s only one of the factors.

What of unions, you ask? Corrupt, I answer. And foolishly focused for too long on dying industries plus, at best, suffering in the wilderness because of the mistaken snobbery of those who thought of themselves as professionals aligned w/the upper-most tier of management. (Big mistake. Just ask anyone from Andersen what their CPA & 80 hr weeks have bought them in the way of security).

As for the shortages that caused (sic) HB1 mania, there is no real labor supply gap--never was, in spite of our shrinking "native" birth rate, only a shortage of educated workers & avenues for affordable, practical retraining for the displaced & those w/outmoded skills. We, as a people, have failued to recognize the truth of what was happening to us & take care of business. Now we are paying for it.

Answers: Don't blame those who take advantage of our weaknesses. Save your money. Get out of debt & into the faces of legislators, political parties & trade/professional associations to force reversal of open border policies & create effective, profession-based 21st century unions; demand good public schools; report/root out payroll tax cheats/abuses & employers (of all sizes) hiring illegals...and...never again by into the illusion of "team oriented/people focused" organizations.

It's dog eat dog, has been, will be, forever...no matter how much we or our bosses wish it weren't. Just have to deal with it.