more on Tech: A 'hostile environment' for US natives????

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Gene Spafford <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
Date: May 5, 2005 7:26:30 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Tech: A 'hostile environment' for US natives????


I am sure I will regret this, but....

I talk to people in regional companies who are looking to hire IT  
talent.   They sometimes can't find it in the US.  Meanwhile, we have  
a bunch of people complaining about H1-B visas and "furriners" taking  
their jobs.

But what I hear from people in the companies is:
1) domestic IT talent is concentrated in particular geographic areas  
-- and those people don't want to move.  There are jobs available in  
the midwest, for instance, but people don't want to move from  
California or Boston or wherever.  Those "furriners" are willing to  
travel halfway around the globe for a good job; the domestic talent  
wants to stay in areas where there is a surplus of unemployed IT people.

2) domestic IT talent -- particularly older programmers -- often  
don't have the skillset that is needed.   For instance, companies  
seeking to hire programmers proficient in XML and Java are not overly  
impressed with people who list their skills as Fortran, Cobol and  
Basic.   Couple that with the fact that many employers would like  
their employees to know some math and how to write grammatically  
correct reports, and there is a problem -- we have a lot of older  
programmers who avoided the classes and training that would have  
provided these skills, and they don't feel any obligation to learn  
new things.  Meanwhile, many engineers from places such as India have  
deeper skills in math, English composition, and software engineering  
than their US counterparts, and they are willing to make the effort  
to master new skills.  (We see this in our students, too -- ask  
anyone teaching at a major US university.)

3) the market won't bear the  salaries demanded by domestic  
programmers -- they want salaries and benefits as if we were still at  
the height of the tech bubble.   Companies can't afford those  
salaries and be competitive globally.   Couple this with people  
expecting salaries in Ohio and Indiana to be the same as San Jose or  
DC, despite the cost of living being much, much lower, and the  
positions go unfilled.


Are some companies using cheaper foreign labor to keep wages down?    
Almost certainly.   Is foreign labor the main cause of IT  
unemployment?  Almost certainly not.

It is always easier to blame some other group for our problems -- the  
Tutsis, the Jews, the communists, the younger generation, or those  
"furriners".  It's always some other group responsible.

I suspect it is going to get worse before it gets better.  Our  
government is spending billions to pay farmers not to grow crops, to  
support the tobacco industry (which then leads to government spending  
in health care for the cancer and heart and respiratory diseases),  
and prop up 19th century manufacturing concerns in a 21st century  
economy (among other follies)... while spending a pittance on basic,  
high-tech research that has been shown to lead to economic growth and  
jobs in the longer term, and on the education that would help people  
fill those jobs. In a decade, it may well be that if you want a  
cutting-edge job doing exciting work in IT or bio or nanotechnology,  
you will want to emigrate to India or China....and you won't be able  
to blame our H1-B visa policy if you can't compete in those markets.



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