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 ...
I have a nephew who walked away from med school because 80% of their time was spent on social engineering. He says he fails to see what Israeli/Palestinian relations and gay rights have to do with medicine.
He drives a UPS truck now and says he’s never been happier.
It’s completely PHONY! H1-B is nothing more than a way to drive down employee costs, nothing more..
There is no shortage of able, talented tech folks in the US.
“Technically nobody should be “hiring illegals” (which is different from H1B arrangements, which tend to be contractors). It is banned. But the nation is falling asleep with the nodding and winking.
A contractor economy makes sense to nervous companies in a tight time with greedy, proud tyrants (not private enterprise, but government) presiding over it. I’ve switched to that mode and in fact am working cheek-by-jowl with H1B, which almost to a person are very decent.”
I think somehow that HighTech Redneck is making money off of these H1-B visa holders rather than working with them. I too am somewhat of a high tech redneck having grown up in Montana and working in IT for over 23 years.
Nobody’s arguing against a contractor-based economy but why can’t those contractors be Americans? Why should Americans have to suffer declining wages due to unfair foreign competition and then pay higher taxes to support the families of these H1B visa workers who tend to come over with the H1B scabs to fund medical care, subsidized housing, welfare Social Security payments, etc.?
The H1-B and L1 visa system has turned into a classic government boondoggle where the federal government, bribed by special-interest money from big corporate donors, shifts cost from corporations to the American taxpayer through taxes and onto the poor and struggling middle class workers through lower wages,!declining opportunity and inflation due to increased demand for products and services.
I would rather have off more offshoring of work rather than import a whole new foreign demographic to help communists take over the country, just saying.
Little of each. Last thing we need are more underpaid foreign imports displacing Americans.
“It’s not phoney. There are no US candidates.”
Texasgunlover, you are full of shit! There are plenty of US candidates. Are you a troll paid by the Chamber of Commerce?
Oh my, the STEM shortage lie again, told by bankers and companies that don’t want to pay for health care and other costs.
The industry is doing nothing but seeking cheaper labor.
The corporation claim they need foreign workers until Americans go to college to learn the trade.
First, that is an insult to the Americans that are in college right no for these trades and an insult to the millions of qualified Americans already experienced in these trades.
Second, why would any American go to college for these trades if the corporation will simply pay off Congress to allow them to hire foreign workers instead of American workers??
10 years? Try since 1994, 21 years. The flood gates opened up under Clintoon in 1994. The same issues today were issues then.
I was filing complaints then. US West, for instance, laid off 105 people to replace them with Indians that could not do the job then added 10 Americans to do all the work. Indian managers were using the H-1B program to line their pockets from their Indian consulting companies just like they do today. Indian managers get kickbacks from Indian staffing companies.
What most pinhead employers don’t realize, given their focus on quarterly numbers only, is that the turnaround time for anything developed with these foreign indentured servant (A.K.A. temporary slaves) is much longer than using American talent and the quality is much poorer. I speak from experience having been in the position of fixing a lot of crap done by Indians who can barely speak the language.
I have managed teams of Indian workers, both onshore and offshore, and I can speak with authority on this issue. There are a few jams among this group and I count them as my friends but I think this whole onshore/offshore experiment is a catastrophe for America.
“Not every graduate has the skills that these companies need. A large number will not cut it.”
They do far better than their Indian counterparts being brought in under the H-1B program. Far better.
“I am not sure companies save any money on H1-Bs”
I know for a fact they do. Seems you are not all that knowledgeable about the industry. So why comment on it like you are an expert?? You obviously are not.
“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.”
Amen! Kill it dead!
And living four to an apartment.
-PJ
Thank you
I don’t know about in your neck of the woods but here on the east coast, many H-2B’s over stay their visas and become illegal aliens. Like other illegals they work through firms that hire them out and vouch for their legality.
Since they come from a heavily socialist culture they have no problem making liberal use of out safety network. No one questions their eligibility because they are ‘disadvantaged minorities’.
“To get an H1-B employee, the company has to shell out $15k-$20k upfront in legal costs etc”
No, they do not. $325 is the base filing fee, but all said and done the fees average $1,500. H-1B fees have never been your claim of “$15k-$20k upfront”.
Again, you are obviously not experienced in this industry.
I hear ya.
“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 call BS on that claim. First off, no one has to pay $20k to hire an H-1B, and second, if the foreign workers went to another company the seconds company must also process the employees just the same. There are no privileges or benefits for already having been through the process.
Again, you sound more like a lobbyist for H-1B foreign workers than anyone who knows anything about the subject.
“I can confirm. However, an average-to-poor H1B generally costs way more than a correctly-paid good American IT guy. “
Totally agree. Many foreign workers are hired by a manager, typically Indian, that gets a kickback.
“It’s not phoney. There are no US candidates.”
Please give us the details of US College admissions that state no one is going to college for STEM. I’ll be happy to then slap your BS response into the dirt like the foreign worker whore it is.
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