UC Davis Study Concludes H-1B Workers Neither Best Nor Brightest

CowboyRobot writes "American companies are demanding more H-1B visas to ensure access to the best and brightest workforce, and outside the U.S. are similar claims of an IT worker shortage. Last month, European Commission VP Neelie Kroes bemoaned the growing digital skills gap that threatens European competitiveness. But a new study finds that imported IT talent is often less talented than U.S. workers. Critics of the H-1B program see it as a way for companies to keep IT wages low, to discriminate against experienced U.S. workers, and to avoid labor law obligations. In his examination of the presumed correlation between talent and salary, researcher Norman Matloff observes that Microsoft has been exaggerating how much it pays foreign workers. Citing past claims by the company that it pays foreign workers '$100,000 a year to start,' Matloff says the data shows that only 18% of workers with software engineering titles sponsored for green cards by Microsoft between 2006 and 2011 had salaries at or above $100,000."

Comments

schadenfreude

[Anonymous Coward]

So when nerd inventions blast away other people's jobs, most of the people around here start screaming about buggy whip manufacturers and the need for a rapidly adjusting workforce. When US companies go outside the priesthood and get overseas IT people because the locals don't meet their needs, then suddenly protectionism is awesome. The rest of the country has zero sympathy here. Nerds have constantly pushed technology that has cost people jobs. From replacing checkout operators, to devastating travel agencies, to Google self driving cars getting rid of taxis to "disrupting education" so you can fire a lot of university staff. When a nerd looks at someone with a job who isn't in IT, all they seem to be thinking is "how can I automate it so that this sack of meat is no longer in the equation"

Re:schadenfreude

[Anonymous Coward]

Nerds have constantly pushed technology that has cost people jobs.

... but this time its serious because they're talking about nerd jobs.

Bah, bullshit.

It's serious because we are talking about government screwing with the labor market. It is neither open competition (so that H1-B visa holders can at least compete and move job to job) nor is it fully closed so that it is Americans competing internally

Instead, you have indentured servants brought in using the H1-B visa program artificially lowering wages. It is not natural competition or progress in any way.

Re:schadenfreude

[TheRaven64]

H-1Bs are different. If a US citizen decides that they are being screwed, they can give notice, quit, and find another job. If an H-1B decides that they're being screwed, then they can't move jobs unless they can find another company that will go through the H-1B sponsorship process, which takes time, before the short grace period expires and they get deported. It gives their new employer a really strong bargaining position if every day that they delay finalising the remuneration agreements puts their potential employee a day closer to being deported.

Bogus

[wienerschnizzel]

First thing - the Economic Policy Institute is clearly a political think tank rather than a pure research institution. Biased.

I was wondering how would you evaluate the skill of IT workers on a large scale so I looked at the actual article. These are their metrics:

- salary

- rate of patent production

- Ph.D. dissertation awards

- alma mater university rank

- employment in R&D

The data then comes from surveys.

I call BS on this study!

No longer a need for H-1B

[gatkinso]

Now that thousands of DOD/NASA/NOAA/FAA/ect technical contractors are going to be looking for work.

Re: find another job? Wut?!?!

[Attila Dimedici]

Yes, but a U.S. citizen does not risk being deported and if they believe that all companies are screwing them they can attempt to start their own business. An H1B visa holder must find a job with a company that can sponsor their visa in order to stay in the country and they must do so within a time frame that is well-known to all such potential employers. If you are a U.S. citizen it is unlikely that your potential employer knows how much longer you can afford to be unemployed and thus has less negotiating leverage than they do with someone with an H1B visa.