Skilled American's Jobs May Be in Jeopardy Again
Pending Threat of Outsourcing and the Controversy of the H-1B Work Visa
According to Alan Blinder, an economist from Princeton University, the "choice" jobs of skilled Americans could be lost and given to foreign countries within the next decade or two. Some jobs that are up for grabs include computer programming, graphic design, and bookkeeping, along with several others that were once considered "skilled American jobs".
Apparently Blinder was sitting in at the business summit in Davos, Switzerland when he heard some executives from the U.S talking about outsourcing. They were very enthralled in the fact that they could outsource so many professional jobs to lower-wage countries.
The government, who offers the H-1B visa program to educated foreigners, may be doing more harm than good in the end. The H-1B visa allows the foreigners with an education to work in the United States for three years and now many of the leaders in Congress want to double the amount of visas to around 115,000 a year.
The partial positive of the H-1B visa program is that it allows foreign graduates of Universities in the United States to stay in the U.S until they can get their green card. However the downside is when the person that is working on the visa comes to the U.S, learns about American business practices, and then when the three year limit is up they return to their country and are more capable to interact with their customers in the U.S.
A professor of public-policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Ron Hira, has done studies on the down side of the H-1B visa program. He has noted that "the top applicants for visas are outsourcing companies, such as Wipro Technologies of India and Accenture, which is based in Bermuda".
Many other cases show that companies have their U.S employees train the workers with the H-1B visa, and then they turn around and replace them with the visa worker at a lower pay rate. "This is euphemistically called, 'knowledge transfer,' " said Hira. "I call it, 'knowledge extraction.' "
Others seem to think that the H-1B visa program also is being used to depress American workers wages. However, the people that defend the program argue that the laws basically require companies to pay "the prevailing wage".
Did you know what the median pay for an H-1B computer professional was in 2005? It was $50,000 which of course means that at least half of the workers make less than that amount. On the other side of the coin, an American computer professional with a Bachelor's degree makes more than $50,000 a year starting in an entry-level position.
Now enter the major problem that companies are seeing and beginning to face; not enough young Americans are studying in the field of science and technology. But if the companies cut the pay or outsource the positions, how is that incentive for young Americans to enter into this career field?
Really, all of their excuses seem empty. Let's face facts and look at why major companies want to look further into outsourcing; more money in their pockets by having to deal with less training domestically, less office space to pay for at the U.S rate, and the pay to foreign workers don't have to meet American standards.
The immigration bill that passed last year contained a provision for the H-1B visa program. Apparently Republican John McCain and Democrat Edward Kennedy have basically stated that their legislation requires the employers to openly search for U.S workers first before they hire a foreigner with an H-1B work visa; it does not state this however.
So where does that leave the already skilled U.S workers as well and the youth that may be interested in pursuing a career in one of these fields? Basically it leaves them virtually unprotected. Apparently they won't get help or protection from big business or our federal Government, so they will need to start looking out for their own interests. Hopefully this will change, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
*Sources*
-Columbus Dispatch Online. URL: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/editorials/stories/2007/04/17/harr17.ART_ART_04-17-07_A7_E86D71T.html. Harrop, Froma. 2007Apr17.
Published by Miss Faith
Miss Faith is a full time student and she is currently working with About.com as the Guide to Makeup. She has finished her Bachelor's Degree in Intelligence Studies, as well as an Associate's Degree in CIS/N... View profile
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- Some of the jobs that may be at risk are: computer programers, bookkeepers, and graphic designers.
- 40-million jobs are being estimated at risk due to outsourcing within the next two decades.
- The H-1B work visa is actually allowing more companies to take jobs from US workers.
10 Comments
Post a CommentI am a single mother with a son in college and 1 disabled son. I work for a insurance company and I was told 2 weeks ago my job was going to Poland. What is wrong with this country. Now I will probably lose my home and pull my son out of college. I think this outsource
is for the birds in Washington D.C.
Perhaps we should outsource our white house politicians who are seemingly just as commie as the countries they send our jobs to, of course we would do this in the name of democracy and this would allow the rest of the world a chance to "survive" also.
Companies strive to obtain the lowest cost per unit of production. The lowest wage possible is slavery. Guess what they want to accomplish. Slavery has happened time and again throughout history. It always works the same way...first, you pay off the politicians so they won't protect their people..looks like they have accomplished step 1...
The problem is a extremely unfair exchange rate. If the India and China currency was allowed to float and was not pegged at such a UNFAIR and grossly undervalued amount, then US companies would have NO REASON to OUTSOURCE.
Who is allowing the unfair currency peg? They are the problem.
The not training enough scientists/engineers talk is bunk. Go to the applications department of any good major US engineering school and you will find that they are impacted and possibly may not allow people into the major even though they otherwise qualify for the university. Even further, pay for US engineers has not significantly gone up in the last 10 years. Hardly a crisis. The core of the problem is more about allowing americans to get educated at their own universities in science and engineering. The reason we lose our edge is because we are pushing americans out of universities to make space for foreign students. I would have no problem with granting work visas if there was a tightening of the foreign students in the technical progams that keep out US students.
Thanks a lot Jaleh! Your positive comment just made my day! It's really great to see a pay off to writing when others stroke your ego. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind criticism, since it can only help me write better, but let's face it...we all like being patted on the back from time to time.
American companies must compete with foreign companies. Part of competing is reducing the cost of production. Paying for technical work is part of the cost of production - whether such work is central to product or service produced or whether it is ancillary. In either case, the more efficient the production, the lower the cost of the produced good or service.
As an individual, you are a customer far more often than you are a producer. You may perform IT work 10 hours a day, but then you purchase the production of others in a mind-boggling array of ways. You purchase groceries, make mortgage or rent payments, pay for insurance, gasoline or diesel, electricity, books, internet access, cell phone service, clothing, cleaning supplies for the home, entertainment, and so on. When the cost per unit of production is lower for those producers, competition (supply & demand) drives down the price to reflect the lower cost of production. This, combined with the drive to innovate, means that t
Ben - Believe me, I know full well about outsourcing going on. My husband and I both work in the IT industry and he is actually a programmer while I do networking and security. At least I've been more fortunate so far but I feel it won't last long. And I have heard several foreigners on the H-1B say they plan to learn and earn and then go back to their country to make more money. It's pretty ridiculous.
I really wish it were that simple, CR, to just boycott theses companies...but there are 2 reasons why that wouldn't happen: 1) the far left and the far right wouldn't let that happen. Some on each side of the street are entwined with these companies I'm sure and that would be taking money from their pockets instead of ours. 2)It's hard to know which companies are radical about doing this and which ones are planning on doing it. Very few are open about it since they don't want to lose American buyer's money. It is really sad that they do this though.
This is extremely disturbing. We should boycott the heck out of any company outsourcing jobs. Absolutely ridiculous! Do these idiots have any idea what they are doing to our great country? They can take their companies and ... well... Americans who want to hire Americans can start new companies to replace them.