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Tech Companies Worried About Staffing

At the same time we do not seem to have the will or the means to stem the tide of illegal immigration comes news that legal immigration of desperately needed tech staff is being capped. From CNN:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it reached its limit for 2008 H-1B visa petitions in a single day and will not accept any more, to the dismay of technology companies that rely on the visas to hire skilled foreign workers.

The agency began accepting petitions Monday for the fiscal year starting October 1 and said it received about 150,000 applications by mid-afternoon.

The temporary visas are for foreign workers with high-tech skills or in specialty occupations. Congress has mandated that the immigration agency limit the visas granted to 65,000, although the cap does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas can be granted to applicants who hold advanced degrees from U.S. academic institutions.

Tech companies are part of the entrepreneurial boom. We need to reform immigration policy to meet the needs of our new economy.

(Thanks to Andy Tabar for passing this along).


Posted by Jeff Cornwall on April 9, 2007 09:18 AM |

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Comments

If the government made an effort to control the flow of illegal immigrants, they could offer more visas for people to enter this country legally.

Birdied by: Shawn | April 9, 2007 10:42 AM

Where are those jobs? What are the names of those companies that are having difficulties hiring skilled people? Where did they advertise those positions – in the local retirement community weekly letters?

In my company IT department that I work in has gone from 140 to 40 people in the last three years. My wife’s company gone through the merger and most of the scientists are still without the job although they knew what was coming to them six months in advance. Incidentally, all of the technicians (less skilled part of the work force) easily found new jobs…

I guess we did survive this time around but we should not have according to you. After all, it is so much easier to control the cost if you have the work force that is in a semi-slave position while you are promising to work on a green card for them…

Birdied by: pcs | April 9, 2007 01:38 PM

Which companies are really being hurt? I know Intel and Microsoft want a lot of these guys, but they could actually afford to pay the college costs (or even just training costs) of some American citizens to fill these jobs. It's not like they aren't making money. And if the big guys are getting all the well-trained citizens before the little entrepeneurs can, plus they're also getting the immigrants, maybe we should just change the law so businesses with more than x number of employees can't have immigrants.

Or maybe the government shouldn't be letting people in for this anyway. If Intel can't find enough citizens right now to do the work, why shouldn't Intel just pay to educate some citizens. Or move to India? I'm not sure this is a problem the government should be fixing. Intel could endow a lot of unversities to help lower the cost of going to engineering school, for instance. A few private companies built facilities at USC for the engineering school, but I don't remember seeing a break on my tuition receipt.

Birdied by: Matthew Rigdon | April 9, 2007 08:22 PM

I cannot believe a business academic doesn't know that there is no shortage of technology workers.
There is only a shortage of technology workers who will work for $15/hour and no benefits.
Companies are stating that can't tech staff, but that's just a pretense to find cheaper labor.
Look on Dice.com, Monster.com or the other sites matching workers to employers.
Read this article:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/careers/content/mar2003/ca2003036_6655.htm?ca

Do a little research on Google.
But PLEASE don't just push these opinions that there is a 'technical labor shortage' without verifying it.

Birdied by: bob | April 10, 2007 08:26 AM

Bob,

It's not all about cheap labor, it's about getting the job done. Techies in countries like India aren't just experts, they are often hired because they are also qualified. The fact is that the number of computer science majors here in the U.S. has declined (70% since 2000) and countries like India have great candidates for these positions.

In 2004, 11 percent of all higher education degrees awarded in the U.S. were in engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences — a decline of about a third since 1960 (according to Bill Gates).

Countries from afar are emerging. Welcome to the global economy.

Birdied by: Bryan | April 11, 2007 12:17 AM

Sorry GenX. Build me schools, educate me, train me, i want benefits,etc...
There is a shortage of tech labor that remembers it is more than talent and intelligence that is needed to successfully contribute to an organization. The appropriate candidates are in short supply. Work ethic is in shorter supply. GenX has an insatiable appetite for "ME". Increasing compensation does not solve this problem.

Birdied by: rick | April 11, 2007 04:37 AM

Hmm, bob does have a good point. It was my experience to get promoted out of a job. When the belts needed to be tightened, they let a lot of us go.

Birdied by: Jeff Knooren | April 11, 2007 04:56 AM

Huh? How many H1B workers do you know who make $15/hr and have no benefit? Check out Goog, MSFT, Intc, whatever, and try to find one immigratant engineer who makes less than $30/hr. Why do people keep thinking that way without any evidence?

The nation is sinking because too many people just sit there, complaining how immigrants came and stole their jobs, and the government isn't doing anything. Steal them back then!!! America is all about competition. Don't use the excuse of deflated wages, it is not true and it doesn't help.

Birdied by: Hart | June 15, 2007 01:50 PM

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