Skilling Up the Immigration Debate
So far, the headline-grabbing U.S. immigration debate has concentrated on low-skilled immigrants, legal or illegal. Yet, away from the hubbub is a lower-key debate about skilled immigrants working in fields such as technology, engineering and health care. On one hand are those who say the U.S. is facing serious shortages of such foreign workers. On the other hand are those who claim such shortages are exaggerated.
Most discussions about skilled immigrants tend to center around the H-1B visa program. The people who get these visas are defined by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as workers who have skills in a specialty occupation such as architecture, engineering, medicine or such business specialties as accounting or law. Potential candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (U.S., 2006). There are about 220,000 H-1B workers in the U.S., including those with exemptions from the current cap (Puzzanghera, 2006).
One area of the debate focuses on compensation, with critics arguing that visa holders are paid less than citizen workers and may bring down overall pay rates in their fields. Such charges are hard to substantiate. After all, U.S. law requires companies to pay foreign nationals on a scale equivalent to what they’d pay U.S. workers. But employers are allowed to hire by generic category rather than by special skill set, so inequities might occur. “You get an expert for the cost of a regular programmer,” claims Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis (Schwartz, 2005).
Some recent research suggests concerns about compensation inequities could be valid. Until 2003, both temporary immigrant and U.S. IT workers earned nearly the same wages but, according to H-1B salary data compiled by Computerworld with Eastland Data Systems Inc., U.S. salaries in the IT field rose 6.2% in 2003 and those of H-1B workers dropped by 2% (Thibodeau, 2005).
Another area of debate focuses on whether or not there are shortages of skilled workers. There’s no doubt that a lot of U.S. employers are extremely eager for workers coming in through H-1B visas. Because the USCIS operates on the fiscal year, all applications for H-1B visa slots must be filed by the October deadline. For the first time ever, all of these slots for the present year, 2006, were already filled in October 2005 (Shelzi, 2006). A March 2005 survey conducted by the Human Resource Institute revealed that 74% of responding companies use H-1B temporary visas, often for IT, operations, and engineering positions.
It’s also true that a study conducted by the National Science Foundation and analyzed by the Employment Policy Foundation suggests there’s a lack of experienced engineers available to U.S. companies. In March 2005, a perceived shortage of skilled engineers caused the U.S. government to make 20,000 additional H-1B visas available for foreign IT workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities (Thibodeau, 2005).
Some experts point to the overall number of engineering graduates. Europe produced 338,139 new engineering graduates in 2001, and Asia graduated 477,805, but the U.S. produced only 59,536 graduate engineers that year, down from nearly 80,000 in the mid-1980s (“Engineer,” 2005). Meanwhile, there’s anecdotal evidence from corporate recruiters that it’s taking significantly longer to find just the right engineers or other specialized workers in a tightening labor market. The U.S. unemployment rate for electrical engineers, for example, is now down to just 2.1% from 6.3% as recently as 2003 (Harrison, 2005).
But others remain skeptical that there’s an actual shortage of skilled workers, even engineers. In the field of electrical engineering, for example, total employment dropped nearly 8% in two years, indicating that many people simply left the field. Some engineers argue that it’s not that there’s a shortage but that recruiters are overly focused on the minutiae of whether an engineer has experience with the latest version of a particular software or meets some other specific technical criterion. “There is now a string of requirements for an engineering job,” says James Murphy, who holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “Years ago there would be one major requirement, with x, y and z nice to have. The worst thing about this emotionally is reading about the ‘shortage’ of engineers” (Begley, 2005).
Many U.S. IT workers object to increasing the current cap on H-1B visas. They maintain that high-tech employment has gotten better since 2004, when the cap was lowered to 65,000, its pre-1998 level, down from a high of 195,000 from 2001 to 2003.
Still, in late March 2006, the U.S. Congress put plans on the table to nearly double the cap on H-1B visas from 65,000, the current annual allotment, to 115,000 for fiscal year 2007. But as all potential bills concerning immigration are being hotly debated, it remains uncertain if or when any such plans or regulations will be enacted, or how restrictive new laws would be (Puzzanghera, 2006). What is more certain is that many corporations will continue to lobby hard for higher caps as long as they’re feeling the uncomfortable pinch of skills shortages.
For an article about how a U.S. Senate proposal aims to increase the H-1B visa cap, click here.
For a Wall Street Journal article on how engineers are questioning the realities of shortages, click here.
For government information on H-1Bs, click here.
For a description of U.S. immigrant categories and visa classifications, click here.
For an article looking at both sides of the H-1B debate, click here.
For a piece that argues that H-1B visa caps hurt U.S. competitiveness, click here.
For an article on employment data among electrical engineers, click here.
For an article about how the nuclear industry fears a shortage of engineers, click here.
For other information on recruiting new employees, click here.
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include the following:
Begley, Sharon. “Unemployed Engineers Question ‘Shortage.’” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2005.
Broder, John. “Immigrants and the Economics of Hard Work.” New York Times Online, April 2, 2006.
“Engineer Shortage Increases Need for H-1B Visas.” Employment Management Today, Winter 2005, p. 8.
Gay, Lance. “Engineer Shortage Concerns Nuclear Power Industry.” Scripps Howard News Service, April 4, 2006.
Harrison, Russell. “Employment Data Paints a Disturbing Picture.” Todays’ Engineer Online. September 2005.
“Immigration Proposals and How They Differ.” McClatchy Newspapers, March 31, 2006.
Lochhead, Carolyn. “Demographics Fuel GOP’s Immigration Dilemma; Some Fear Alienating Growing Numbers of Hispanic Voters.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2006.
Mittelstadt, Michelle and Sudeep Reddy. “Bills Could Let Scores More in Legally.” Dallas Morning News, March 31, 2006
Pettibon, Sula. “Tech Schools Offer Rx for Nursing Shortage.” Herald Online, April 11, 2006.
Puzzanghera, Jim. “H-1B Visa Increase Advances in the Senate.” San Jose Mercury News, March 28, 2006.
Schwartz, Ephraim. “H-1B: Patriotic or Treasonous?” InfoWorld, May 6, 2005.
Shelzi, Dominic. “The H-1B Visa Program Counteracts Offshoring, Helps U.S. Keep Its Competitive Edge.” Computerworld, April 3, 2006.
Thibodeau, Patrick. “H-1B Fraud Investigations Are Expected to Increase.” Computerworld, March 21, 2005.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. “H-1B Frequently Asked Questions.” Last modified January 20, 2006.
Most discussions about skilled immigrants tend to center around the H-1B visa program. The people who get these visas are defined by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as workers who have skills in a specialty occupation such as architecture, engineering, medicine or such business specialties as accounting or law. Potential candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (U.S., 2006). There are about 220,000 H-1B workers in the U.S., including those with exemptions from the current cap (Puzzanghera, 2006).
One area of the debate focuses on compensation, with critics arguing that visa holders are paid less than citizen workers and may bring down overall pay rates in their fields. Such charges are hard to substantiate. After all, U.S. law requires companies to pay foreign nationals on a scale equivalent to what they’d pay U.S. workers. But employers are allowed to hire by generic category rather than by special skill set, so inequities might occur. “You get an expert for the cost of a regular programmer,” claims Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis (Schwartz, 2005).
Some recent research suggests concerns about compensation inequities could be valid. Until 2003, both temporary immigrant and U.S. IT workers earned nearly the same wages but, according to H-1B salary data compiled by Computerworld with Eastland Data Systems Inc., U.S. salaries in the IT field rose 6.2% in 2003 and those of H-1B workers dropped by 2% (Thibodeau, 2005).
Another area of debate focuses on whether or not there are shortages of skilled workers. There’s no doubt that a lot of U.S. employers are extremely eager for workers coming in through H-1B visas. Because the USCIS operates on the fiscal year, all applications for H-1B visa slots must be filed by the October deadline. For the first time ever, all of these slots for the present year, 2006, were already filled in October 2005 (Shelzi, 2006). A March 2005 survey conducted by the Human Resource Institute revealed that 74% of responding companies use H-1B temporary visas, often for IT, operations, and engineering positions.
It’s also true that a study conducted by the National Science Foundation and analyzed by the Employment Policy Foundation suggests there’s a lack of experienced engineers available to U.S. companies. In March 2005, a perceived shortage of skilled engineers caused the U.S. government to make 20,000 additional H-1B visas available for foreign IT workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities (Thibodeau, 2005).
Some experts point to the overall number of engineering graduates. Europe produced 338,139 new engineering graduates in 2001, and Asia graduated 477,805, but the U.S. produced only 59,536 graduate engineers that year, down from nearly 80,000 in the mid-1980s (“Engineer,” 2005). Meanwhile, there’s anecdotal evidence from corporate recruiters that it’s taking significantly longer to find just the right engineers or other specialized workers in a tightening labor market. The U.S. unemployment rate for electrical engineers, for example, is now down to just 2.1% from 6.3% as recently as 2003 (Harrison, 2005).
But others remain skeptical that there’s an actual shortage of skilled workers, even engineers. In the field of electrical engineering, for example, total employment dropped nearly 8% in two years, indicating that many people simply left the field. Some engineers argue that it’s not that there’s a shortage but that recruiters are overly focused on the minutiae of whether an engineer has experience with the latest version of a particular software or meets some other specific technical criterion. “There is now a string of requirements for an engineering job,” says James Murphy, who holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “Years ago there would be one major requirement, with x, y and z nice to have. The worst thing about this emotionally is reading about the ‘shortage’ of engineers” (Begley, 2005).
Many U.S. IT workers object to increasing the current cap on H-1B visas. They maintain that high-tech employment has gotten better since 2004, when the cap was lowered to 65,000, its pre-1998 level, down from a high of 195,000 from 2001 to 2003.
Still, in late March 2006, the U.S. Congress put plans on the table to nearly double the cap on H-1B visas from 65,000, the current annual allotment, to 115,000 for fiscal year 2007. But as all potential bills concerning immigration are being hotly debated, it remains uncertain if or when any such plans or regulations will be enacted, or how restrictive new laws would be (Puzzanghera, 2006). What is more certain is that many corporations will continue to lobby hard for higher caps as long as they’re feeling the uncomfortable pinch of skills shortages.
For an article about how a U.S. Senate proposal aims to increase the H-1B visa cap, click here.
For a Wall Street Journal article on how engineers are questioning the realities of shortages, click here.
For government information on H-1Bs, click here.
For a description of U.S. immigrant categories and visa classifications, click here.
For an article looking at both sides of the H-1B debate, click here.
For a piece that argues that H-1B visa caps hurt U.S. competitiveness, click here.
For an article on employment data among electrical engineers, click here.
For an article about how the nuclear industry fears a shortage of engineers, click here.
For other information on recruiting new employees, click here.
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include the following:
Begley, Sharon. “Unemployed Engineers Question ‘Shortage.’” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2005.
Broder, John. “Immigrants and the Economics of Hard Work.” New York Times Online, April 2, 2006.
“Engineer Shortage Increases Need for H-1B Visas.” Employment Management Today, Winter 2005, p. 8.
Gay, Lance. “Engineer Shortage Concerns Nuclear Power Industry.” Scripps Howard News Service, April 4, 2006.
Harrison, Russell. “Employment Data Paints a Disturbing Picture.” Todays’ Engineer Online. September 2005.
“Immigration Proposals and How They Differ.” McClatchy Newspapers, March 31, 2006.
Lochhead, Carolyn. “Demographics Fuel GOP’s Immigration Dilemma; Some Fear Alienating Growing Numbers of Hispanic Voters.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2006.
Mittelstadt, Michelle and Sudeep Reddy. “Bills Could Let Scores More in Legally.” Dallas Morning News, March 31, 2006
Pettibon, Sula. “Tech Schools Offer Rx for Nursing Shortage.” Herald Online, April 11, 2006.
Puzzanghera, Jim. “H-1B Visa Increase Advances in the Senate.” San Jose Mercury News, March 28, 2006.
Schwartz, Ephraim. “H-1B: Patriotic or Treasonous?” InfoWorld, May 6, 2005.
Shelzi, Dominic. “The H-1B Visa Program Counteracts Offshoring, Helps U.S. Keep Its Competitive Edge.” Computerworld, April 3, 2006.
Thibodeau, Patrick. “H-1B Fraud Investigations Are Expected to Increase.” Computerworld, March 21, 2005.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. “H-1B Frequently Asked Questions.” Last modified January 20, 2006.