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For experience, I can tell you that there is a serious nursing shortage in the U.S. Nursing schools have waiting lists for students who get accepted. One of the reasons is that there is a shortage of nursing teachers. There are lots of opportunities for nurses, or for any health care provider in this country. Also, for certain types of health care workers, physical therapists I believe, are on a green card short list. These professionals are considered to be in critical short supply and don't have to go through the labor certification process - they practically get green cards right away! Also, Canada supplies a lot of nurses to the U.S. they only need a NAFTA TN visa. Those are easy to get, and unlimited in the number issued and in the number of times it can be renewed, so employment in the U.S. is easy for Canadian nurses. Heck, on the college campuses there, most of the recruiters are from U.S. hospitals.

doc30: For experience, I can tell you that there is a serious nursing shortage in the U.S. Nursing schools have waiting lists for students who get accepted. One of the reasons is that there is a shortage of nursing teachers. There are lots of opportunities for nurses, or for any health care provider in this country.

No question of that which is why I raised it.

In the CPA/accounting example I alluded to earlier, though there has been some outsourcing, foreign workers haven’t been used to any large extent. Ironically the shortage is blamed on interest in investment banking and .com jobs during the late 90s, exacerbated by the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002. The market has been dealing with it. Per the Wall St Journal, accounting majors are at 7% of vocational majors, vs 2% in 2000. More accountants. And yes, it’s because compensation for grads has gone up. About 30% since 2003 per the WSJ. And yes, that costs the accounting firms more. This is where someone jumps in and tells me it will raise the price of tomatoes.

Nursing. The Senate attempted to deal with that problem by offering an unlimited visas to nurses until 2014. That’s a different approach, but I’d suggest one that provides no incentive for students to enter nursing, nor for heavily pressed schools to expand capacity. I’d prefer to let the market solve the problem. And if migrant labor is truly necessary, allow it for a distinct period of time only. And allow job mobility.

doc30: I see your point. For some employers, the H1B lets them treat employees like commodities…If you want real H1B reform, then limit the number of employees that can be hired by a given company so they cannot become H1B dependent. Or break it down by sector or professional requirements like the different EB classes for employment based green cards.
No.6 : That's the real kicker about H1B tech workers. They're brought over here at whatever wage, and then *unlike* regular employees they're basically stuck with the employer and client they've signed on with. Any change is cause to go home. So, the employer can insist on long hours, weekends, any conditions they want and the H1B has no choice but to say 'yes.'… my experience, where I'm able to demand overtime from a client, the H1Bs are on-site 6 days or 7 days a week, well into the evening, but lo and behold their timesheet always reads 40 hours.

IMO the system as it exists abuses employees. And abuses like the ones you describe are precisely why a migrant laborer is more attractive, cheaper, to an employer. I think the visa has to be issued contingent on a job in a particular industry, but I see no solution to the problems No.6 describes other than allowing the visa holder employment mobility. Let employers within a given industry compete for his services as they would a citizen. That would go a long way to reducing wage disparities.

As to H1B workers essentially locking workers at entry level wages, that’s a problem. Clearly some industries may move toward compensation plans less dependent on seniority.