Temporary Visa Programs and IT
Labor Markets Prepared for Presentation to the Committee to Study Workforce
Needs in Information Technology At By Dr. John R. Reinert Institute of Electrical &
Electronics Engineers February 29, 2000 Introductory Remarks Good Afternoon. I am John R. Reinert from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I am currently the Director of Applications Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) programs at UTMC Microelectronics Systems Corporation, a mid-sized manufacturer of integrated circuits. Before joining UTMC in 1985, I worked for Motorola Semiconductor Products, NCR Micorelectronics and United Technologies Mostek. I hold bachelor’s and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Colorado State and Arizona State Universities and a Doctorate in Management from Colorado Technical University. I have been a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers since 1967 and served as President of IEEE-USA in 1998. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a transnational technical professional society made up of more than 352,000 electrical, electronics and computer engineers in 147 countries worldwide. IEEE-USA promotes the professional careers and technology policy interests of IEEE’s 228,000 U.S. members. My remarks today represent the views of IEEE-USA and are not necessarily those of my employer. IEEE-USA is pleased to participate in today’s public meeting of the Committee to Study Workforce Needs in Information Technology. We welcome the opportunity to present our views on labor markets for IT workers and to express our concerns about the nation’s increasing reliance on temporary guest-worker programs to meet current and projected demand for such workers. Current and Projected Demand for Core IT Workers Tight labor markets for information technology workers – especially for technical professionals with training and experience in cutting edge technologies – continue to be reported throughout the country. Unemployment among engineers and computer scientists has dropped from an all-time high of 4 percent in 1993 and 1994 to around 1.5 percent in 1998 and 1999. New jobs are being created at an unprecedented rate and, according to the Labor Department, will continue to grow over the next 5 to 8 years. Computer and data processing services continues to rank number one on the Bureau of Labor Statistics list of fastest growing industry sectors. Five of the ten fastest growing occupations between 1998 and 2008 will be computer related. These include computer engineers, support specialists, systems analysts, data base administrators and desktop publishing specialists. In response to growing demand, educational enrollments at the undergraduate and graduate levels across a range of IT related disciplines, including computer engineering and computer science, have been increasing steadily since 1995. Universities and community colleges are responding to employer’s needs with specialized IT training programs and proprietary schools and company-sponsored IT certification programs have been growing in number and popularity. Some employers are stepping up on-the-job training and more and more IT professionals are taking steps to update their technical, managerial, communications and interpersonal knowledge and skills. Stakeholders from the public and private sectors are working together to organize, innovative industry-education-community partnerships and skills alliances to expand training opportunities for IT workers at the state, regional and local levels. And the Congress has done its part by recently enacting a substantial increase in the numbers of foreign professionals who can be admitted to work temporarily in the United States on H-1B specialty occupation visas. Continuing Contradictions and Difficulties in IT Labor Markets Domestic labor markets are responding robustly to growing needs for more core IT workers, including engineers, computer scientists, systems analysts and database administrators. Some might argue that the nation’s labor market mechanisms are working too well. Such indicators as the recent increase in numbers of experienced unemployed workers and the leveling-off of salary increases reported by Computerworld, suggest that the pressure of growing demand on available supply may have subsided over the past 18 to 24 months. And the increased use of foreign talent in the United States and in offshore locations certainly reinforces this judgement. This is not to say that there are no significant difficulties in IT labor markets, both for employers and for workers. In a recent assessment of demand for IT workers funded jointly by the Alfred P.Sloan and the United Engineering Foundations researchers drew three somewhat contradictory conclusions: 1) There is no general national shortage of IT workers; 2) many employers still can’t find people with the kinds of knowledge, skills and experience they seek; and 3) some people with IT training and experience are having difficulty finding work. One explanation for these findings may be the strong preference among IT employers for recent graduates of U.S. engineering and computer science programs. Younger workers who have been trained in the latest technologies; are arguably more willing than mid-career and older workers with families to work the long hours that many IT employers demand. Even more significantly, they are likely to cost a whole lot less. It is the thirst for workers with these characteristics, the Sloan/UEF researchers argue, that helps to explain the strong industry interest in foreign nationals, who account for so large a share of the pool of recent engineering and computer science graduates, especially at the masters and Ph.D. levels. When heavy emphasis is placed on recent training and very specific experience, it should come as no surprise that people who lack such credentials are having difficulty finding or keeping work, even if they can documents substantial accomplishments for previous employers. These observations may also account for the reluctance of many IT employers to hire and retain mid-career and older workers. These problems are compounded by the increasing dependence in business and academia on temporary admissions programs in general, and the H-1B program in particular, as the fastest and cheapest way to meet current and projected IT workforce needs. Immigrant and Non-immigrant Admissions Programs Foreign nationals who come to study or work in the United States constitute a very important source of the talent needed to ensure the continuing growth and profitability of U.S. providers of IT products and services. Immigrant engineers and computer scientists have made many important contributions to America’s economic and technological competitiveness. And the entry of talented students and skilled professionals on temporary visas undoubtedly helps many employers meet legitimate needs for skills that may not be easy to find in the United States. The quality of our national engineering enterprise as well as educational and job opportunities for aspiring engineers and computer scientists are directly affected by the permanent admission of foreign nationals as immigrants under at least three work-related or employment-based visa programs. These include: EB-1 visas (for individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and certain multi-national executives); EB-2 visas (for professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional abilities); and EB-3 visas (for degreed professionals and certain skilled workers). U.S. IT labor markets are also affected by the admission of foreign-born students and professionals under a variety of educational and employment-based, non-immigrant (temporary) visa programs. These include the B-1 (visitor for business); E (treaty trader or investor); F (academic student); H (temporary worker and trainee); J (exchange visitor); L (intra-company transfer); O (extraordinary ability); and TN (NAFTA professional) visa programs. Of these, the H-1B (for professionals with baccalaureate degrees) and the H-2A (for foreign farm workers) visa programs are the most controversial. The H-1B program, as established by Congress in 1990, was intended to expedite the temporary admission of limited numbers of foreign professionals with specialized skills not readily available in the United States. In actual practice, it has been widely used by many employers as a probationary, try-out employment program for foreign students and other visitors who are already here to determine if they should be sponsored for permanent resident status. And because the labor condition attestation requirements that were intended to safeguard educational and job opportunities for U.S. and foreign workers have proven to be so weak and ineffective, the program has been and continues to be subject to unacceptable levels of fraud and abuse. The Costs of Increasing Dependence on Guest Workers To the extent that the available supply of U.S. workers is insufficient to meet employers’ needs, improvements in the nation’s permanent immigration system are much more preferable to an expanded H-1B guest-worker program to meet legitimate needs for high-tech workers.
The Benefits of Expediting the Admission of Legal Permanent Immigrants The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. For more than 300 years, individuals from various ethnic, cultural and social groups have come to our shores to reunite with loved ones, to seek economic opportunity or to find a refuge from political or religious persecution. They bring their hopes and dreams and, in turn, enrich and energize America. Immigrants frequently establish new businesses and other employment-creating activities that contribute to economic growth at the local, state and national levels. They strengthen America’s ties to other countries, enhance our ability to prosper in an increasingly competitive global economy and provide leadership in international and humanitarian affairs. Their devotion to their families and their personal self- reliance also helps to renew our collective commitment as a nation to these important societal values. Under U.S. law nearly anyone is eligible to become a legal permanent resident or citizen of the United States. As legal permanent residents or citizens, immigrants become "Americans," who enjoy the same rights and privileges as the rest of us. This is not only why legal immigration is good; it is why guest workers programs that deprive foreign nationals of equal opportunities to live, work and move about freely are bad, for all of us. Legal immigration provides a direct and lasting benefit to individual Americans who act as sponsors for foreign nationals who wish to become citizens. This includes husbands who sponsor their wives and minor children for immigrant visas, as well as employers who sponsor skilled workers for the green cards they need to compete freely and fairly for jobs in the United States based on their own skills and qualifications. Legal immigration also offers families a chance for reunification. And it provides U.S. based employers with access to skilled and motivated people who come to the United States not only to work, but also to build a better life for themselves and their families. Conclusions and Recommendations Demand for technical professionals with specialized knowledge and skills is up sharply and will continue to grow as long as the U.S. national economy continues to expand. And the supply of qualified workers has already begun to increase in response to tight labor markets throughout the country. But much more remains to be done, especially in the areas of retraining for mid-career and older workers and better utilization of people with fungible knowledge and skills that were developed in separate but closely related industries and occupations. IEEE-USA continues to be concerned that by increasing our reliance on temporary guest-workers (e.g. H-1B visa holders) to meet the nation’s high-tech workforce needs in the short-term, we may be undermining the future strength of our own domestic engineering and scientific resources. Rather than continuing to increase our dependence on temporary guest-workers, we recommend that legal permanent immigrants be the preferred supplementary source of supply for skilled professionals and other knowledge workers needed to satisfy labor market needs that cannot be met through more effective education and training for American workers. This can best be accomplished by reforming the nation’s permanent immigration system in order to:
More specific employment-based immigration reform recommendations include the following:
Thank you. The Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers - United States of America | Top of Page | Policy Log | Public Policy Forum | IEEE-USA | Last Update: 29 Feb. 2000 Permission to copy IEEE-USA policy communications is granted for non-commercial uses with appropriate attribution, unless otherwise indicated. |
