Posted on 05/23/2014 6:54:09 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute and Philip Wolgin at the Center for American Progress (CAP) each comment on, but don't really try to refute, a new report that I co-authored on the lack of a shortage of STEM workers. The American Immigration Lawyers Association's Paul McDaniel also comments on the report at the association's American Immigration Council website. Like Nowrasteh and Wolgin, McDaniel doesn't really try to refute the report. He cites Cato and CAP and also repeat a number of the points from our report.
Let me address Cato's blog first because both Wolgin and McDaniel partly rely on Cato. Nowrasteh and Cato have an ideological commitment to open borders, which leads them to argue things that often make little or no sense. For example, in one report they tried to argue that immigrant welfare use was not high because poor immigrants use welfare at rates similar to poor natives. Of course, the share of immigrants and their young children who are poor is 70 percent higher than natives; and immigrant households do in fact use welfare at significantly higher rates than natives. Their argument on welfare is like saying that a basketball team comprised of players who are five feet tall should be considered great because they are as good as any other team of the same height.
(Excerpt) Read more at cis.org ...
I've been disappointed.
Well, a shortage of ones that will work for minimum wage. We need more tech visas! Why should anybody but management be able to eat? [/s]
Even IF there is a shortage of STEM workers, American businesses should grow jobs for Americans first. Don’t have enough skilled Americans to do the job? Train some!
What tech field are you in if you don’t mind me asking?
The only thing there is a shortage of is workers who will do the job for 1/3 of market pay.
And my salary topped out early and really hasn't budged in years.
There isn't. As the article says, "There are about 2.5 times as many people in the country with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs."
American businesses should grow jobs for Americans first. Don’t have enough skilled Americans to do the job? Train some!
Amen!
Why are you complaining about pay? Do you think they’re paying you less than you’re worth? It sounds like you’re making a decent salary and have job security thanks to your expertise in your field. If you enjoy the work, even better.
As a good Conservative, with respect for the concept of the market economy, I would have to say that they are paying me exactly what I'm worth. So, maybe it's all good -- how could it be anything else?
My last three job changes have been essentially lateral. I leave an employer if I get bored, and if my salary has plateaued, and I go to a new job because it looks interesting. But the salary is the salary is the salary. The new people entice me with interesting work, but cannot sweeten that with a fatter paycheck. Because someone will come along and do the work for less.
So, I guess that's life.
But the point is: Companies are not throwing money at talent. There is no talent shortage. Companies know what they want to pay (and it's not all that much) and they know that there are PLENTY of people who can do a decent-enough job for not that much money.
And the H1-B visas are always a useful tool to further dilute the labor pool and have a broader supply of workers -- which will always further depress wages.
I'm doing OK, but I know there is no "shortage" of workers -- there is just a lot of "talk" about a shortage of workers.
I’m with you on the worker shortage. Immigration “reform” that amnesties the illegals and opens the doors for far more legal immigration is obscene! American jobs should go to Americans, not foreign imports.
Have you considered opening your own business?
I'm a cog in the corporate world, and it works well enough for me, but I'm still bothered by companies who try to game the political system by claiming "There aren't enough workers!" It's simply untrue. They just want cheap workers and sometimes people with talent don't want to work cheap -- that's when the CEOs start calling the lobbyists.
Then get a good financial advisor and start making money for retirement.
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopes.
I’ll tell you one thing. There is no shortage of Indian folk who are perfectly happy to take a paycheck to work with technology that they are unqualified to work on. I cannot describe the depth of the utter incompetence that exists out there. Sometimes it is absolutely astounding. While I’m sure there are also incompetent Americans, there is just really no comparison, at least with the folks that I’ve worked with over the past decade or so.
That doesn't mean I in any way support or approve the corrupt H1B Visa's for cheaper labor via imported IT workers.
Just as I do not approve of importing legal or illegal aliens in construction, fast food, farm work,retail janitorial, landscaping, etc jobs.
We supposedly have labor laws, that were hard fought for, in this nation.
Nobody seems to be subject to, prosecuted for breaking, or protected by those laws.
None of the laws are enforced as was intended.
When I first started out in tech, we had a requirement to do at least 40 hours employer based training a year. Today it’s rare to even have any worth while technical training available, Diversity training and the like is abundant, but technical you’re on your own. I self train to keep myself employed and moved up to management to keep the field lucrative.
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