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Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Very true. I was just reading an article the other day that described how the upper middle class is becoming the new middle class and the middle class is being crushed into being the lower class. There is one group who is actually poised to jump from the lower to middle class - Hotel Workers. But only because of their union efforts. After completely checking out on the H-1B Visa issue, you would think that the AFL-CIO would have realized that it represents an opportunity to reach out and extend their membership to areas that they never recruited from previously. Much as it pains me, perhaps it's labor representation that is needed for white collar skilled jobs.— March 19, 2011 4:54 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Thanks Ponzi, I wish that I could post about something less grim though..— March 19, 2011 4:46 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
I think a lot of people have been disappointed by Obama. But consider the alternatives... The Dems would like us to believe that they are the party of middle America while the GOP is the party of Wall Street, but I think that it's more a case that one is wholly owned by Wall Street while the other can be bought for a price. When I heard Obama say, "America must compete!" in the last State of The Union Message. The first thing that I thought was, how much money did the uber-rich lobby pay him to say that?". The fact that he didn't go on to say that we must remove the H1B cap, tells me that he didn't completely sell out. Wall Street wanted a sound bite and they got it though.— March 19, 2011 4:17 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"As director of Bright Future Jobs, we lobbied Sen. Durbin to restore our freedom to compete for job openings in our own country we are qualified to do. He responded with a great bill that we want passed this year. It will put Americans back to work and stop the offshoring of the jobs of the future." Outstanding! Keep up the good work. I didn't know about the OPT only positions. This just goes to show how far out of whack the system has become.— March 19, 2011 4 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Good point!— March 19, 2011 3:56 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
I personally would like to keep it free market. If the demand is high, wages will go high and people will enter the field to satisfy the demand. Flooding some fields with foreign labor is a bad precedent and it opens up a lot of subjectivity on what is considered to be a shortage and what are reasonable wages that should be paid. Wall Street loves those arguments, because to them having 100 people tap dancing for one opening is a labor shortage and they will begrudge any wages being paid as too high.— March 19, 2011 3:45 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"If theory of Qualcomm paying H1B less compare to others would have been true, those employees would have ran away to other places on their Green card arrivals" It's not a theory, it's a fact shown in publicly available records that Qualcomm pays its average H1B workers less than it pays its average worker. Qualcomm isn't stupid though, if they have invested years in training an H1B they will want to keep them which means paying them commensurate wages as they get close to Green Card status (for the workers that they want to retain). I do know many Green Card holders who left though, so it does happen. Most people who have worked for a large company for 6 years no longer want to take the risk of changing jobs, especially I imagine an immigrant who only knows that one company, some will have been promoted too, so this probably works in QCOMs favor as well. Bottom line, there are many reasons for people to stay working for the company. But we'll never the exact numbers so it's pointless to debate. "Qualcomm government solution"..."in dire needs of people and they can't find any suitable candidates!!!" This is because of the same reason that we've already discussed. Americans are avoiding STEM fields because of outsourcing and insourcing (H1B Visa). This exactly shows why it's become a problem for America because we can no longer fill many roles requiring American Citizens and this has created a well known problem for National Security. Hiring Americans into STEM fields was never a problem during the 1980s when the US had enormous numbers of engineers working on Defense projects. In fact during that time, San Diego employment was heavily centered around defense companies and they didn't have an engineering shortage. "and i can assure you there are no managers of Asian ethnicity!!" Even though I don't work at Qualcomm, it sounds as though I know the company much better than you as I know several managers in Qgov that are of Asian ethnicity! "And to everyone here , my group just hired 3 new people". 3 people does not a trend make. The fact that one is a fresh grad with an H1B just reinforces it though, internship or not. Internships are a ridiculous predictor of future potential and often just go to show how well connected someone is to a particular company. "Only point here is We do hire people on merit rather than anything else." Like the H1B job ad that required someone with 1 year of feature testing? No doubt that this position was so merit based that it was specifically targeted only for an H-1B.— March 19, 2011 3:39 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"Qualcomm has interest in Indian market". When the "jobs for market share" idea was first brought up, you said, "That's weird way of thinking!!!". Now you're using it as fact to try and bolster your argument that the H1B Visa is a good thing. Rather than grab at straws, I would recommend that you read up on (outsourcing, insourcing and the H1B dynamic). Please educate yourself about these issues rather than putting the burden on us to do it for you. It's a fact that Insourcing is a process that hurts STEM fields. It's better than outsourcing because at least some tax revenue is generated in the US, but its still a harmful process to 98% of Americans. "Insourcing for market share", in this particular case has not yet been proven to be beneficial even to Qualcomm's bottom line. It's too early to tell. It could just be the case that it's another example of an American company giving away something for a false promise. "there is always high turnover rate people switch jobs and you don't retain all employees." You're only pointing out one of the key reasons why companies want to hire using the H1B Visa. Back in the days when Americans flocked to STEM fields, turnover was very high and companies had to pay high compensation in order to retain the best (incidentally, this is happening in India now). With the 6+ year indentured servitude dynamic, workers can now be handcuffed through no cost to the company. Of course companies use this to their benefit.— March 19, 2011 3:31 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Very true. American corporations giving away their intellectual capital in exchange for a "promise" of access to a market that will likely never bear fruit, is another short-term Wall Street stupidity that is killing this country. Incidentally, as I posted to QcomGeek below, Qualcomm has sites in Beijing, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We know that foreigners comprise 60% of the workforce at Qualcomm San Diego, I wonder how many Americans are employed at these other facilities?— March 19, 2011 2:10 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
QcomGeek, let me now address your last point: "As far as Qualcomm making deal for H1B hires for deploying their technologies in developing countries like China/India.."... "Let's assume that's the case. Let'a also assume all 12000 employees of Qualcomm in USA are H1B holder ( Remember this is wrong wrong assumption as only less than 5% are H1Bs). Would it make sense for any foreign government to allow Qualcomm to earn billion in return of 12000 H1Bs.. Rather ask Qualcomm to open R&D center in their own country and get people employed there!!!" Qualcomm has outsourced sites in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Beijing. So presumably they are doing what you described, but they still feel the need to fill engineering jobs in San Diego from mostly foreigners, many if not most came to work for the company through an H1B. To Qualcomm and any other large company that is only concerned with short-term profits, it doesn't really matter to them who they employ so long as they get the sales that they want. To America and the other 98% of Americans that are coming in on the short-end of these deals it obviously makes a very big difference to whom those jobs go. Incidentally, where did you come up with the number that only 5% of the workforce is on a H1B? The fact that H1B statistics show that Qualcomm received 6224 H1B Visas in San Diego for a workforce of 12,500, along with Jacob's comments that his workforce is 60% foreign would suggest that your numbers are completely wrong. Qualcomm won't release the exact number which is another indication that the number is large.— March 19, 2011 2:05 p.m.