This article is a satire, right??? Employers have abused the H1B program to pay less than the going wage. Employers certify that no American workers are availalbe even when fully qualified Americans are. CSC is a prime example of this. Almost quarterly they lay off their domestic workers yet assert that no American workers are available. The H1B program is a joke, and if Network Work doesn't recognize this, then the American IT workers do.
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Proof of need to increase caps?
The NFAP concludes, "An additional indicator of the need for skilled labor in the economy is the regular lack of availability of H-1B temporary visas for skilled foreign nationals,". No sir, that is an indication of greed not need!
the repoutation is an overreaction
after all, all H-1b did, was screw a generation of the hardest working Americans out of their livelyhood with a pack of lies.
That's no reason for a bad reputation, is it?
Gates Got His, But The Rest Of Us?
I was approached by Microsoft to work on virtualization technology in the Boston area and was very interested in doing so. Their recruiter, however, informed me that I'd need to take a 30% pay cut because Microsoft was insistent that it maintain the same salary levels on both the east and west coasts, despite a huge disparity between the cost of living in Boston as compared to that in the Redmond area. Even the recruiter thought it foolish and apologized.
4000 slots to fill, but can't find qualified Americans to fill them? Bill - please - I don't begrudge you your phenomonal success, but at least have the decency to be truthful and think of America first - certainly the EU has no use for you, for example...
The demand and supply of IT workers
IT pays high. Why? The supply is low and is not enough to meet the current demands. It is not that the companies want to hire H1B alone, but the US workers want to retain their high wages. An increase in the supply of IT workers through H1Bs would boost the supply and reduce the prevailing wages for IT worker in the long run. The alternative of farming these jobs out to the foreign country shifts the benefits from US to other countries. US economy is better off keeping those jobs here and removing the H1B caps. If so, there will soon be a point where there are low economic incentives for the H1B foreign national to work for the US company in US. It is inevitable and avoiding it through the H1B quota affects not only the surplus/benefits to the US but also to the growth potential of the relevant fields. However a regulation banning the misuse of H1B by non US companies is long warranted.
Clearly you're not among the
Clearly you're not among the technical people doing the work. If you were, you'd realize that with the technological aspects of our society evelolving ever more quickly, those of us doing the work can not hope to keep up and remain competitive by working 8, 10 or 12 hours per day. To remain among the best demands a level of effort that goes far beyond that of many professions, while the profit margins associated with the products we build are huge.
If we follow the supposed logic of your argument, why are doctors and lawyers among the most highly paid members of our society? Because the demand is high and the supply is low? No, there are doctors and lawyers in ever growing numbers, yet they are highly paid because their professions demand a higher level of expertise than most.
So it is with those that drive the technology engine of our economy. Individuals like yourself would like to oversimplify these intrinsically important issues, claiming that anyone, even monkeys, can code, while your ignorance of the issues continue to hollow out the core of the American economy to the eventual detriment of us all.
When your children or grandchildren live in a country that's seen its economic stature fall to that of a third world nation, will they look back upon your overly simplistic views with grateful hearts?
Yeah. Right
All I can see when reading this article is the video of that law firm with an HR specialist giving a seminar on how to beat the H-1B visa cap.
Now another lawyer (an immigration specialist at that) talking about how there's a 'false 'perception.' I can tell she has no clue what the IT industry is like.
Mmmm-hmmmm
And you notice how that mind-blowing video got almost no exposure in the mainstream media. It was the labor sphere's equivalent of the Rodney King footage or the Abu Ghraib photos, but the newsrooms know who pay for their advertising and were probably too afraid of the law firm to give it the airing it deserved. Too bad.
H1B is just the tip of the iceberg
When I came to America (18 years ago) I was hired through an H1B visa. I had to be qualified by the Department of Labor, and my position was advertised for a month in a high circulation newspaper. Then, potential employees had to be screened and their skills and training compared to the position advertised.
In other words, it was clear I was not taking an American job.
The difficulty in not finding tech jobs is not in the H1B, it is in the fact that companies can transfer all their R&D and QA abroad to India, Romania, etc. And the basis in which this happens is purely economical. It has very little to do with quality of work, or skill set.
Now, I have heard the economy is going to adjust itself, but R&D, QA, IT, etc, are well paid positions, which do take time to be properly trained. If these jobs are gone, what will happen to the market companies need to sell into?
It looks to me we are putting the blame in the wrong place.
Companies are simply optimizing themselves out of existence, because as the number of unemployed increase, the market shrinks and the cycle restarts.
Dr. Nash has proven mathematically that there is virtue in choosing the less desirable outcome, so that Equilibrium can be reached and everyone wins.
It seems the greedy investors will end up, indeed killing the proverbial golden goose.
I take it you've never been displaced
What is wrong with H1B? Employers will hire an American contract worker to get things ironed out. Then, at contract renewal time, in comes an inexperienced H1B worker to take over - at 1/6 the cost.
How do they do that? I was a manager once forced to hire H1B folks. I found out that 10 of them shared a little ranch house in a suburb and they all commuted together, in a van provided to them by the contract house. So lets see, No rent - paid for by company, No car maintenance - paid for by company, No utilities - paid for by company, No insurance - paid for by company.
Gosh, how can they work so cheap?
The better question is - ignore the 1 IT person they put out of work by being here. How many other people are put out of work because they bring their lifestyle here and foist it on America? I don't see a lot of Americans living dormitory style at subpar wages, do you?
H1B
H1B is needed for some seasonal jobs that can't be filled by American labor however, I see no need for it to be used in professions where there are canditates being gaduated from our colleges and universities at a steady rate. These visas are being abused by major employers in order to avoid paying a fair wage. This prevents low income foreign students from earning tuition money and American professionals from earning what they are worth.