Oh, wonderful. Fifty thousand more H-1Bs that I'll be competing with the next time I change employers. I'm pretty confident about my ability to get a job should I have to--I've done it before--but I've had way too many friends, skilled programmers, who have been out of the field for YEARS after getting laid off while companies are bringing in Indians by the thousands. And my wife's worked for an immigration lawyer and has seen the tricks these companies use--believe me, they find ways around the rules about having to advertise the jobs for Americans first, and having to pay prevailing wages to the visaholder.
Free trade is one thing and I'm for it where it doesn't impact national security. But with a big labor glut out there in the IT industry, why the heck do we need 50,000 more H-1Bs a year? We don't.
}:-)4
Yep, I've seen those games firsthand. Of course companies are squawking that there is a shortage - the alternative would be to hire back the older workers they jettisoned in 2002.
In point of fact, we have a "glut" of:
On the other hand, we have drastic shortages of:
And a disturbingly large number of people who have these jobs today don't really know what they are doing. ;)
H1B is a rather poor solution to this imbalance, because it tends to deliver the capital letters without the required communication skills or business experience. But it's sort of a solution, and it's popular with employers who are definitely enjoying the downward pressure it is placing on salaries and contract rates. We need Indian MS and PhD computer scientists (ultimately, they create jobs), but we don't need Indian network administrators, even if they are half-price. It appears that H1B is too often being (ab)used for the latter instead of the former.
But while it lasts there is still one great thing about America: Everything you need to know to become a highly successful IT professional in this country is out there for free on the Internet right now. If you want to beat out the Indian hordes, get good on your own time at J2EE, XML and web services. As long as you know how to speak English and can communicate ideas to management verbally and in writing, you've still got a big advantage over the foreigners.
Oh, and Allen's a Beltway Insider. If it seems that he and his peers don't work for the voters any more...well, they don't. Ultimately, employees of a company work for the company's customers, but they take orders from the people who hand them checks every two weeks. Even if those orders are not in the best interest of the company's customers.
Politicians do exactly the same thing. ;)