Are American Engineers in Short Supply?

The U.S. does not need more H-1B visas; it needs a better H-1B system. While foreign workers with advanced degrees may be important to our future, simply increasing the number of available H-1Bs will not ensure that we are recruiting and retaining the workers that will grow our economy. Over 200,000 H-1B visas are issued every year (new applications and renewals). Over 100,000 of those H-1B visas go to fill entry level positions. There is no evidence that there are an insufficient number of U.S. workers to fill these positions. There are numerous ways to improve the H-1B system, including the establishment of a labor market test. The H-1B visa was intended to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the United States to fill positions that could not be filled by the domestic workforce. Yet H-1B visas are issued regardless of worker shortages. In the second quarter of 2010, computer scientists, systems analysts, and computer programmers all had unemployment rates of around 6 percent, which is high for this occupation field, yet nearly 90,000 H-1B visas were issued to hire foreign workers in computer-related occupations. Any changes to the H-1B program will have significant consequences for our future. Access to even more foreign workers creates a disincentive to invest in our domestic education programs and leads to fewer U.S. students pursuing math, science, and engineering degrees. We should be supporting programs that have the opposite effect. For more information about these issues, see the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO website, www.dpeaflcio.org and two of its reports on the H-1B visa system: "Guest Worker Visas: The H-1B and L-1" and "Gaming the System: Guest Worker Visa Programs and Professional and Technical Workers in the U.S." (www.dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fac…).
— March 18, 2011 1:42 p.m.