10% unemployment but H1B visas accelerating

noob_trad3r · Dec 10, 2009

fter a slow start, U.S. employers are again gobbling up the controversial H-1B work visas. With a surge in demand over the last two months, the total number of H-1B visa petitions granted so far in 2009 is 58,900. The government caps the visas at 65,000 per year.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/H1B-Visa-Demand-Rebounding-143626/

So there is employment but not for its own Citizens in the USA.

Go figure.

dealmaker · Dec 10, 2009

H-1B visas addresses the needs of the country if, there were qualified citizens; they would have been hired. Do you realize how much it costs companies just to process H-1B visa applicants paperwork? Perhaps a more appropriate topic would have been why more American teenagers/ college students don't study math and sciences.

noob_trad3r · Dec 10, 2009

Quote from dealmaker:

H-1B visas addresses the needs of the country if, there were qualified citizens; they would have been hired. Do you realize how much it costs companies just to process H-1B visa applicants paperwork? Perhaps a more appropriate topic would have been why more American teenagers/ college students don't study math and sciences.

Thanks. So Americans are to dumb for these jobs so we need to import foreigners to do them.

MohdSalleh · Dec 10, 2009

this is misleading. there is a cap on H1b's every year and every year it is used up whether it goes faster or slower makes no difference. Also, frauds aside, it is actually not that easy to get a H1b, the employer has to certify that no American can do the job

Burtakus · Dec 10, 2009

Quote from noob_trad3r:

Thanks. So Americans are to dumb for these jobs so we need to import foreigners to do them.

In many respects too dumb, not motivated enough, not qualified enough, or too expensive.

Add all of that up and it's not a good day for American workers.

I do know several tech workers who are American and get paid very well. But they are highly educated, work their butts off, and have a skill set that is in high demand with short supply.

dealmaker · Dec 10, 2009

"Thanks. So Americans are to dumb for these jobs so we need to import foreigners to do them." quote by noob trad3r

My post implied there weren't enough Americans studying math and sciences. Just visit any major university science department and you will see the lone American in the midst of sea of foreigners.

successtrading · Dec 10, 2009

Could these companies move their operations overseas and hire these workers locally?

dealmaker · Dec 10, 2009

In some cases not because most aero space, defense & some tech sector jobs require security clearence and thus must be in US.

Daal · Dec 10, 2009

If no american can do the job, this begs the question, why impose a cap at all?
It seems that the government is restricting business output and profits in the name of making xenophobics happy

Angrycat · Dec 10, 2009

Quote from Daal:

If no american can do the job, this begs the question, why impose a cap at all?
It seems that the government is restricting business output and profits in the name of making xenophobics happy

Most people think the cap protects American Jobs. It doesn't. If Americans are not qualified or too expensive for the job, it either moves overseas or it doesn't exist at all as the company drops that line of business.

Of course, if the business is dropped altogether, all of the associated jobs which may be performed by Americans are also not created. The seen and the unseen. Long live Bastiat.