Posted on 04/08/2009 11:49:25 AM PDT by algernonpj
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 8 it has received enough H-1B applications to meet the congressionally mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2009. The H-1B visas are given to foreign workers in “specialty occupations” (science, engineering, law, medicine, computer programming, etc.) where U.S. employers have filed petitions claiming there are not qualified U.S. applicants to fill the jobs.
The total current 85,000 includes an annual 65,000 “cap” and an additional 20,000 exemptions for applicants with advanced degrees. If precedent holds, other exemptions will add tens of thousands more; in 2008 the number of H-1B visas, including exemptions, totaled about 122,000.
The 85,000 H-1B visas about equal the number of domestic tech workers laid off recently. MarketWatch.com reported on April 6 that “high-tech companies announced job cuts totaling 84,217 in the first quarter,” the steepest reduction since the fourth-quarter lay-offs of 2002. “The latest decline follows 66,312 reported layoffs in the 2008 fourth,” the MarketWatch report continued, noting job cuts “have risen five straight quarters.” That, of course, is but part of the job-loss picture; nearly ten times that number of workers were laid off, in all occupations, during the month of March. The U.S. economy lost 663,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate shot up to a 26-year high of 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While U3 unemployment is 8.5%, U6 is 15%+. U6 represents U3 unemployment before Clinton / Greenspan 'improved it'.
Also, while 500,000 jobs (give or take) are being lost each month a total of 130,000 new workers (guest workers and green cards) are being brought into the country each month.
First post, so please be kind re any errors
/mark
But they’re doing work that Americans won’t do. /s
Right. Like we don't have too many lawyers, already.
Oh, I get it. Maybe most of the one's we have, aren't actually qualified.
IBM is sending 10’s of thousands of jobs overseas - train the replacement foreigner then get fired. The U.S. should do no further business with them until they right this wrong.
I work in IT and many jobs are outsourced to India...so the 85K is a small number in comparison to how many American jobs have already been dished out overseas. Trust me, these contractors do not have nearly the skills they pretend to. they create big messes we have to correct over here in the end. Honestly.
Great post. Wonder when the h1-b, open borders, globalist types are going to chime in claiming how great this is??
I think this article is wrong. I believe USCIS announced that the quota was not met by April 7 so they were still accepting H1B petitions.
Alas, your conservative brethren here on FR feel it is their right as business owners to import cheap labor and that they shouldn’t be forced to pay an “American salary.”
Folks, the middle class is being systematically eliminated from both ends.
Lower End: Cheap illegal Hispanic labor
Upper End: H1B Visa Holders
Make all the cheap plastic crap you want in China but if there isn’t a middle class to buy it from Wal-Mart what have you really accomplished?
Related Threads:
H-1B Want Ads Show that American Corporations are Giving 1st Crack at US Jobs to Foreign Workers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219914/posts
U.S. Visa Limits Hit Indian Workers (Cry me a f-ing’ river)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2223161/posts
U.S. private sector job losses rise in March
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219772/posts
Don’t forget these visas are good for at least 6 years, so its
85,000 x 6 - (510,000) minimally at any given time. In 2008, it was ~122,000 x 6 (732,000).
In India H-1B visas are call the ‘off-shoring visas’ because they are used to support off shore operations.
“Alas, your conservative brethren here on FR feel it is their right as business owners to import cheap labor and that they shouldn’t be forced to pay an “American salary.””
That is BS.
Open borders is a libertarian position, conservatives are the only group that is anti mass-immigration, except for those so-called “economic conservatives” that are also known as libertarian/conservatives.
‘I think this article is wrong. I believe USCIS announced that the quota was not met by April 7 so they were still accepting H1B petitions.’
.
USCIC announced today that the quota has been reached:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=c5b6628090e29110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD
OK, hadn’t seen that one.
Actually, the notice you linked to was from last year (2008), for FY 2009 (which started last October 1, 2008). s far as I can tell, the USCIS’s notice of yesterday that FY 2010 cap filings hadn’t yet met the quota still governs.
Do you have the link; I know yesterday an attempt to get USCIS to confirm or deny that the quota was met was not answered.
Here’s a link, although it’s not on proper USCIS leterhead, and I couldn’t find it on the USCIS website:
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2009,0409-h1b.shtm
You mean one of those messes like when I call and can’t understand a word they’re saying so I demand to talk to someone in the United States who speaks clear fluent English? ;-)
How long until a laid-off U.S. techie decides to take it out on his office full of H1-Bs?
In 2001, we had to spend $250,000 to correct what 5 Indian H1-B's had done in programming faulty Active X server components for a big ecommerce website, which caused it to fail under heavy loads. I have paid higher salaries and used American workers ever since and have been very happy. My best 2 programmers were HS/college students I personally trained. The time and expense was well worth it.
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