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.''
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© 2004 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miami.com
In all my years of recruiting for technical and non-technical positions in Silicon Valley, I have NEVER had a client replace a US citizen with an H1B Visa employee. I'm not saying it never happens, but it is definitely the exception, not the rule.
Employers know that while H1B visa employees may cost less, they are far less efficient than US citizens and most times cost more in the long run. I have never had a client who "preferred" to hire a foreign worker.
I have a client right now who is a major public accounting firm and is DESPERATE to find qualified CPAs. The accounting firms in this area are all hiring like mad, and so my client is spending significant recruiting dollars to find people anywhere in the country they can find them. Cutting off the H1B visa program has hurt their business growth. And it was not because they refuse to hire US citizens or want to save a few bucks.
My bet is dat the gubment need to hire more skilled folks rather than those who can count to 65,000.
A person may have to take a job to keep the bills paid, but why is somebody supposed to throught out years of hard fought and learned experience to take such a job.
Nothing wrong at all with being a truck driver, either, but there's adapting and there's tossing away a lifetime of experience.
I wonder HOW many of those Colombians and Venezuelans GOT so wealthy?
Creative chemical entrepeneurs possibly?
Oops...should have used the spell checker
A person may have to take a job to keep the bills paid, but why is somebody supposed to *throw out* out years of hard fought and learned experience to take such a job.
Nothing wrong at all with being a truck driver, either, but there's adapting and there's tossing away a lifetime of experience.
Didn't say a word about someone throwing away years of experience or anything like it.
South Florida has the most expensive housing in the state thanks to capital flight from South America.
Not only that --- there once was a time where corporations and businesses offered scholarships to universities to train more students when shortages existed --- at one time it wasn't the government giving scholarships based on politically correct reasons --- but academic scholarships which encouraged the best and brightest students to attend college --- even if they were white.
There is no evidence that foreigners are the best and brightest and that is not why they are being brought in by the thousands --- they are being brought in only for being cheaper. Unlimited low-cost labor disrupts the balance between employers and employees --- wages go up when there is a shortage of employees, the higher wages attract more into the field, then wages stabilize. Globalism is done deliberately to destroy this balance.
Agreed. I don't think a "service" economy will be able to stop what they usually do and start churning out war materials. Starbucks will not all of a sudden stop making lattes and make small arms or ammunition.
Singer (sewing machines) as well as GM, Dodge and other "old economy" companies were able to supplement the traditional gov. contractors.
Those companies are now "fabless" (not fable-less) companies that essentially market their foreign made/assembled products in the U.S.
I am not saying we should still be paying union thugs $25.00/hr to put wheels on cars but we can't abandon some of the old line (or new line) techonologies to cheaper overseas workers and plants.
In my case, I am not too proud to take a job at a fast food joint (even though I have a BSEE), but with what they pay it would cost me more in gasoline to commute to work every day than what I would earn in wages.
Same with $10 per hour engineering jobs 2000 miles from home. It would cost more to set up a second household than I would earn at the job.
Back in the 80's, temporary engineering jobs paid about three times what a "permanent" job was paying, which made it worthwhile to go to the jobsite for 6-12 months and live bachelor status.
I agree with you that there are plenty of jobs available if one is willing to work for almost nothing. What are you paying your truck drivers?
1. Allow a relief valve to allow industry to obtain, at fare marekt value, key skilled labor that they cannot get domestically.
2.Provide revenue to the U.S. Government (not necessarily a benefit actually as it will just hire more bureaucrats to run our lives)
3. Keep industry from using the visa program just as a way to lower salaries for skilled professionals.
4. Provide a real economic metric (i.e. the bid price in the market for these visa's) of the value of immigrant workers.
Hear! Hear!...tired of folks expecting jobs handed to them in their chosen field...Work is something to pay the bills...
Im looking for work too and this doesn't help.
Im looking for work too and this doesn't help.
Maybe you should learn mexican just like me. I've been out of work since february and I'm blonde haired, blue eyed, you think I'll get a good job?
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