Posted on 10/06/2004 2:27:43 PM PDT by JesseHousman
The U.S. used up its supply of 65,000 temporary visas for skilled foreign workers in a single day. Advocates for raising the quota said that bolstered their case.
South Florida businesses that rely on talented foreign workers to fill technical positions are out of luck until next October -- unless they have an applicant already in the pipeline.
Federal officials closed the 2005 application window for highly coveted foreign professional visas just hours after it opened.
The unprecedented rush for temporary visas for those skilled foreign workers demonstrates U.S. companies' pent-up demand for candidates in such technical fields as engineering, mathematics and research. And, South Florida experts say, it increases the likelihood that companies will outsource jobs overseas.
''It means, unfortunately, that employers here will have less options in terms of hiring,'' Deborah Vazquez, chief executive of the Miami-Dade and Broward County recruiting firm Protech, told The Herald. ``We will have fewer candidates, [less] talent in a situation in which demand very much outstrips supply.''
The quota of 65,000 ''H-1B'' visas was filled Friday, the first day of the 2005 fiscal year, meaning that U.S. companies must wait until October 2005 to hire more foreign workers under the visas.
Until two years ago, the government issued 195,000 of the visas annually. The allotment was slashed because of increased restrictions on immigration following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Job losses in the computer and high-tech sectors have made legislators reluctant to reinstate the bigger quota, even though U.S. companies have argued that most of the jobs filled are outside those sectors.
''It was a real wake-up call when these numbers were issued,'' said Sandra Boyd, who chairs Compete America, a corporate coalition pushing for more H-1B visas. ``I don't think anyone believes it's acceptable that a whole year can now go by without any access to these people.''
The H-1B visas have been popular with U.S. companies, which maintain that they cannot find enough American workers with advanced scientific and engineering degrees to fill critical jobs. Last year, the 65,000-worker cap was hit in February 2004, about five months into the fiscal year.
Tammy Fox-Isicoff, a Miami immigration attorney who helps foreign professionals get H-1Bs, said lawmakers must raise the visa cap again or ''carve out exceptions'' for disaster areas like Florida after the hurricanes or for professions with employee shortages such as teachers or healthcare professionals.
''This situation is terrible that when the doors open to H-1Bs, it swings shut on the same day,'' Fox-Isicoff said in an interview with The Herald. ``It's not good for American business.''
Companies were allowed to submit applications against this year's quota in April.
Theodore Ruthizer, who heads the business immigration practice at Kramer Levin, a New York law firm, predicted that the scarcity of slots will worsen unless Congress expands the program.
''It just proves the numbers are inadequate,'' he told The Financial Times.
U.S. companies have been urging Congress to adopt an interim measure by exempting from the quota any foreign national holding an advanced degree from a U.S. school. That would add about 20,000 positions a year.
About two-thirds of students taking advanced mathematics and engineering degrees at U.S. schools are foreign born. U.S. companies say they will be at a disadvantage should those students go to work for overseas competitors.
And immigrant-rich South Florida has a large share of that talent.
''We have so many universities here with foreign students who come and graduate and look for jobs in the area,'' Andrew Koerner, a partner with the Leaf Koerner law firm in Miami, told The Herald. ``It's just sad to see these small-business owners suddenly stopped from being able to grow their businesses.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2004 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miami.com
OK Juan. You say you were a fry cook in Mexico City? No problemo, here's you "skilled" visa.
Again, your company refused to pay market rates, then used that as a justification to bring in foreign labor... SCAM.
That is exactly the problem.
That is a base annual rate of $88,200 - if the company were to pay what the candidates felt they were worth - say $160,000 base - the company goes under. Who won?
Boy howdy! At my company when one of our "skilled" Indian employees has a problem they get in a huddle of five or six Indians and try to save their buddy. If an American worker has a problem and doesn't solve it on the spot he's told he needs to improve his skills or leave. We aren't even allowed to talk about the problems resulting from our foreign employees. The management has bet on a horse and dammit, that horse is going to win no matter what.
We are on the same side here. I don't like it either - but the problem is SO much bigger than visa issues.
The problem is the free trade and free traitor mindset. To heck with building long term growth, it is get it quick take a golden parachute and get out.
If the work requires the skills of people with 20 years of experience in a highly specialized and technical field, and they can only pay in the 80s for the work, then they either A) persued a project with too little profit to accomplish in the first place or B) Planned from day one to undercut labor by bringing in foreign labor.
How much do those same companies pay their top sales producers per sale commission? 20% 30% 40%? There is clearly money in the product to pay salaries and remain competative, its simply a matter of where and how they prioritize.
If you know going in the prevailing wage in the industry you need to hire is 150k a year per person, and you can't make the project profitable paying those wages, then you shouldn't be persuing the project... seriously, whats the prevailing cost over say 3 many years? Say they need 5 guys, that represents less than 1 Million dollars on a 3 year project, if $1 Million is going to bust their budget of a major aerospace project, they are persuing a project that likely shouldn't even be bothered with in the first place.
Employer intentionally and knowingly decided NOT TO PAY MARKET WAGE, and H1B gave them a cheat card to get away with it... H1B are SUPPOSED to be only for positions where you cannot find american talent capable to do the job.... the example you gave is NOT the case... there were pleanty of americans CAPABLE of doing the job, they just refused to pay market rates to employ them to do it.
H1B is a complete SCAM.
No the problem is that H1B give the companies a "Get out of Jail" card for refusing to pay market rates. If you bother to look into the requirements for hiring an H1B its purpose is for bringing in people to do jobs you CAN'T find american's capable of doing. There is no shortage of americans who CAN do the jobs offered, NEVER WERE! Even at the height of the tech bubble there was pleanty of domestic labor for the jobs available.
The problem is is that companies find Americans who are CAPABLE and WILLING to do the job but they are unwilling to pay them market rate for the work... so they go and abuse the intent of the H1B program because they haven't met the requirements that they "CANNOT FIND AMERICAN WORKERS".. but have decided that they just won't pay market rates.
Exactly.
It's been 25 years for me, but I can tell you that Mexican illegals have no problem discriminating against Americans (both white and black) if they can get control of hiring. Typically, hiring on 'crewed' jobs is done by referral -- so who do you think they are going to refer?
The foreman may even be a WASP, but typically in the interests of crew stability, they defer to workers who work together. The one thing I never found were illegals willing to be team players with white English speaking males -- the hatred was rather palpable.
If the foreman is Mexican, you can completely forget it. The discrimination will be overt and blunt.
So, "why don't you just ask" is naive. It's one of the reasons I got an engineering degree -- didn't want to ever face having to work on a crew again with that kind of crap going on. Especially on oil rigs, where having to work with some violent illegal next to you can be hazardous to retention of your fingers.
Well, my job is gone and so are thousands of others, airbus won in the market place over and over and over. So now the work is done out of the country. It's very sad. I am not sure if you are saying that the company is the bad guy here, if that is what you are saying, I don't necessarily agree. I am very much in favor of a capitalist society where a company should be free to make a profit.
I am quite employable, but choose to stay home. My spouse is employed in a technical field that cannot be outsourced, thank goodness, and is able to support us.
South Florida is dominated by doctors, lawyers, tourism, and crime. Silicon Valley it isn't.
Boeing makes the best plains, but airbus has government support. They are outsourcing their manufactoring as fast as the can. They no longer make their computers, they have subcontracted that out to other companies. They are even now outsourcing r&d as well as quality control.
Airbus wages are rather high. The reason Airbus made such inroads in the U.S. was the use of walk away wet leases, underwritten by the French state and the EU member countries of the Airbus consortium.
It was this kind of trade tactic that led to the WTO filing by the U.S. last week.
Industrie Airbus and EADS have no significant wage advantage; probably the opposite. What they do have are governments that are on their side. Meanwhile, two of the three major U.S. airframers are gone; the last standing one basically has to produce in other countries to get them to buy anything (and they demand access to the technology as well); and the chattering classes who print money to keep the Beltway economy going merely shrug and say "it's free trade", which is ridiculous.
45$/hr is real good money for someone who is a permanent employee. But for a contractor who has to pay both halves of the Social Insecurity tax, estimated taxes, and their own health insurance, it works out to a LOT less in take home pay.
I don't know which type you were hiring but perm vs. contract makes a huge difference in the hourly rate the employee can deal with.
I've done a bit of consulting on the side and the rule of thumb is that if you see half of it your lucky. So of 45/hr you'll see about 22/hr, which works out to about 45K a year. Up here that's still good money but in some areas of the country (California, for one) it won't pay the bills.
LQ
It isn't that there aren't any engineers in the US, it is that a foriegn born US educated engineer will work for peanuts while a US born citizen will not.
Many business majors hate engineers. We make them feel stupid.
Yes. This is just to import someone over here for 27k to replace the American worker and his family's benefits. We have plenty of talent but this is a way (much like outsourcing) to avoid the labor market of laws of supply and demand.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.