How the Number of H1-Bs Imported Outnumbers the Number of Jobs Created by the Tech Industry
Executive Summary
- There have been studies that show there is both no skill shortage that would excuse the H1-B program.
- Secondly, the number of imported H1-B workers exceeds the number of positions created in a year.
Introduction
The following is public information, but it is information that neither Accenture, WiPro or any of the companies who continuously import H1-B labor, nor immigration attorneys, nor the multinationals that lobby politicians want the public to know.
According to a study conducted by John Miano and the Center for Immigration Studies, there is no empirical data to support a claim of employee worker shortage.[156] Citing studies from Duke, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Georgetown University and others, critics have also argued that in some years, the number of foreign programmers and engineers imported outnumbered the number of jobs created by the industry.[157] Hire Americans First has also posted hundreds of first hand accounts of H-1B visa harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media.[158] – Wikipedia
A Fake Shortage of IT Domestic Workers
Multinationals make the false case that they cannot innovate without H1-B workers. However, the most significant applications for H1-B visas are some of the least innovative companies in IT. The term “innovative” is never applied to companies like Infosys, Tata Consulting Services or Cognicent IT. These are IT body shops that offer generic skills.
This fake shortage stated by financially biased multinationals is explained in the following quotation.
Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at Howard University and a longtime critic of the H-1B visa program, recently called the IT talent shortage “imaginary,”[160] a front for companies that want to hire relatively inexpensive foreign guest workers. – Wikipedia
Who Has Congress Been Listening To On Expanding and Continuing the H1-B Program?
Congress has been taking the word of multinationals, who want to make money on H1-B visa workers, and to undercut US domestic workers as well as immigration attorneys, who are not experts on the nature of the technology labor market, as the following quote explains.
High-tech companies often cite a tech-worker shortage when asking Congress to raise the annual cap on H-1B visas, and have succeeded in getting various exemptions passed. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), described the situation as a crisis, and the situation was reported on by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Washington Post. Employers applied pressure on Congress.[153] Microsoft chairman Bill Gates testified in 2007 on behalf of the expanded visa program on Capitol Hill, “warning of dangers to the U.S. economy if employers can’t import skilled workers to fill job gaps.”[153] Congress considered a bill to address the claims of shortfall[154] but in the end did not revise the program.[155] – Wikipedia
Yes, Bill Gates, who is known to be a significant labor exploiter, monopolist and utterly unreliable source of information, and immigration attorneys as well as other multinationals. Guess what, want lower-priced labor and want to hire employees who they can completely control, as with H1-B workers where they control their right to be in the country as we cover in the article How H1-B Law Ties US Citizenship to the Employer.
And of course, all the technology companies declare that the only reason they bring in H1-B visa workers is that they can’t find the skills in the US.
A limited number of visas, 85,000, are granted each year, and they are in high demand. Technology giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Google repeatedly press for increases in the annual quotas, saying there are not enough Americans with the skills they need. – New York Times
Not one of them declares their interest in either lowering labor costs or in having controllable labor as a motivation for hiring H1-B visa. However, we know this is the case as the following quotation explains.
H-1B immigrants work for less than American tech workers, Professor Hira said at a hearing in March of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because of weaknesses in wage regulations. The savings have been 25 percent to 49 percent in recent cases, he told lawmakers. – New York Times
Did congress ever think to question whether these sources had a financial bias to provide false information?
Conclusion
This means that US workers are being displaced en masse.
The only question is how massive is the displacement.
A US worker could have filled nearly every person currently or previously working on an H1-B visa. There are some cases where the employer would have preferred not to have hired an employee, but this gets into the lower price of the H1-B employee. This is a more complicated discussion. A program to bring extremely, exceptionally skilled workers would not look like the graphic below.
These statistics are just for one year. All 5,656 H1-Bs brought in by Tata Consulting Services were exceptional and could hot have been sourced from the US worker pool. That is curious because Tata Consulting Services is not known for being a talented consulting company and is generally considered a bottom feeder with low average skill levels. The other Indian consulting firms have similar reputations.
Secondly, companies are making a huge margin because of the H1-B program. All companies that bring in H1-B workers need to do is pay $60,000, and the US government approves of them displacing a US domestic worker. As long as the company pays $1000 to the government for the training of domestic workers, so they don’t get replaced in the future (what?????)
The H1-B program not only depresses the wages of the individual filling the roled (the H1-B versus the domestic employee) but depresses other IT wages as well. This is because of any increase in supply when demand is kept constant naturally reduces the price paid.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa
https://www.nohr1044.com/