Are we really that short of IT personnel?

Once again the “shortage” of IT personnel in America has resurfaced and the debate continues. Is the shortage genuine – are there really not enough Americans who can code? According to the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), there is such a shortage. They are urging congressional leaders to support H.R. 5882 which “would help reduce the U.S. workforce shortage by making available to highly skilled foreign-born workers those employment-based green cards from previous years that have gone unused because of government processing delays”. There may indeed be a shortage of American’s who have the training and skill set to be effective developers. But how is this shortage determined and what criteria was used in its development? I am not refuting that there maybe a shortage, but rather the solution proposed by the SIIA. Their solution is to allow a greater number of “highly-skilled” individuals to enter the US on employment-based Green Cards. While this would be a short-term solution, it does not address the long-term needs of both the companies and the individuals concerned. I would submit that a better long-term solution would be for the companies and higher-education institutions to train more developers. If companies train their own employees, or develop a training program for new employees, they would potentially have a more loyal work force, but at least they would have a higher skilled employee base. How would this help overall? By training your own employees they would potentially earn a higher wage which would in turn assist the economy. When viewing the possibility that a shortage of skilled IT personnel exists you have to look at both short and long term solutions. The short may be to bring in workers, but only for a limited time until you train or grow your own workers. Looking overseas isn’t necessarily the only solution. Reference: www.marketwatch.com:80/news/story/software-information-industries-urge-passage/story.aspx?guid=%7BB7714095-892F-4020-B86A-B935B352E9AB%7D&dist=hppr