IMO this is a runup to increase immigration. The tech industry used this same scare tactic to trick people into thinking that there weren't enough technical people to fill the jobs here. That was the excuse congress used to raise the cap on H1B visas.
But, back in India, where the majority of the h1b workers are from the story is different. They are leveraging h1b visas off of US "free trade" deals. That is, in order for the USTR to get India to sign on to their FTAs, they have to take more migrant workers from India. So they put a little story in the news about a crisis, and nobody looks any further into the dirty deal.
IMO this is a runup to increase immigration.
Bullseye
you got it. no reason to look any further, that's all this is about.
Yeah, the Y2K scare was a programming bonanza. But the consulting companies and ronin who went rogue to capitalize on the increased demand are now unemployed. Meanwhile, the H1B cap remains high and we continue to both import Indian programmers and export programming jobs to India.
Then we're supposed to believe that it's because there's a shortage of American programmers. If there truly is a shortage, it might be because nobody sees much of a future in programming anymore. Not since they opened the door to Bangalore.