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[Congressional Record: September 13, 2000 (Extensions)]
[Page E1454-E1455]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr13se00-28]
H-1B VISA ISSUE
______
HON. DANA ROHRABACHER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I Would like to submit for my
colleagues an article that recently appeared in the New York Times.
With all the recent discussion about the H-1B visa issue, I thought
this article was not only timely, but quite effective at unveiling the
truth behind all the rhetoric I've heard. In fact, I believe this
article succinctly captures the reasons why Congress should not raise
the H-1B visa limit.
[From the New York Times, Sept. 6, 2000]
Questioning the Labor Shortage
(By Richard Rothstein)
To alleviate apparent shortages of computer programmers,
President Clinton and Congress have agreed to raise a quota
on H-1B's, the temporary visas for skilled foreigners. The
annual limit will go to 200,000 next year, up from 65,000
only three years ago.
The imported workers, most of whom come from India, are
said to be needed because American schools do not graduate
enough young people with science and math skills. Microsoft's
chairman, William H. Gates, and Intel's chairman, Andrew S.
Grove, told Congress in June that more visas were only a
stopgap until education improved.
But the crisis is a mirage. High-tech companies portray a
shortage, yet it is our memories that are short: only
yesterday there was a glut of science and math graduates.
The computer industry took advantage of that glut by
reducing wages. This discouraged youths from entering the
field, creating the temporary shortages of today. Now, taking
advantage of a public preconception that school failures have
created the problem, industry finds a ready audience for its
demands to import workers.
This newspaper covered the earlier surplus extensively. In
1992, it reported that I in 5 college graduates had a job not
requiring a college degree. A 1995 article headlined ``Supply
Exceeds Demand for Ph.D.'s in Many Science Fields'' cited
nationwide unemployment of engineers, mathematicians and
scientists. ``Overproduction of Ph.D. degrees,'' it noted,
``seems to be highest in computer science.''
Michael S. Teitelbaum, a demographer who served as vice
chairman of the Commission on Immigration Reform, said in
1996 that there was ``an employer's market'' for technology
workers, partly because of post-cold-war downsizing in
aerospace.
In fields with real labor scarcity, wages rise. Yet despite
accounts of dot-com entrepreneurs' becoming millionaires,
trends in computer technology pay do not confirm a need to
import legions of programmers.
Salary offers to new college graduates in computer science
averaged $39,000 in 1986 and had declined by 1994 to $33,000
(in constant dollars). The trend reversed only in the late
1990's.
The West Coast median salary for experienced software
engineers was $71,000 in 1999, up only 10 percent (in
constant dollars) from 1990. This pay growth of about I
percent a year suggests no labor shortage.
Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the
University of California, contends that high-tech companies
create artificial shortages by refusing to hire experienced
programmers. Many with technology degrees no longer work in
the field. By age 50, fewer than half are still in the
industry. Luring them back requires higher pay.
Industry spokesmen say older programmers with outdated
skills would take too long to retrain. But Dr. Matloff
counters by saying that when they urge more H-1B visas,
lobbyists demonstrate a shortage by pointing to vacancies
lasting many months. Companies could train older programmers
in less time than it takes to process visas for cheaper
foreign workers.
Dr. Matloff says that in addition to the pay issue, the
industry rejects older workers because they will not work the
long hours typical at Silicon Valley companies with youthful
``singles'' styles. Imported labor, he argues, is only a way
to avoid offering better conditions to experienced
programmers. H-1B workers, in contrast, cannot demand higher
pay: visas are revoked if workers leave their sponsoring
companies.
As for young computer workers, the labor market has
recently tightened, with rising wages, because college
students saw earlier wage declines and stopped majoring in
math and science. In 1996, American colleges awarded 25,000
bachelor's degrees in computer science, down from 42,000 in
1985.
The reason is not that students suddenly lacked
preparation. On the contrary, high school course-taking in
math and science, including advanced placement, had climbed.
Further, math scores have risen; last year 24 percent of
seniors who took the SAT scored over 600 in math. But only 6
percent planned to major in computer science, and many of
these cannot get into college programs.
The reason: colleges themselves have not yet adjusted to
new demand. In some places, computer science courses are so
oversubscribed that students must get on waiting lists as
high school juniors.
[[Page E1455]]
With a time lag between student choice of majors and later
job quests, high schools and colleges cannot address short-
term supply and demand shifts for particular professions.
Such shortages can be erased only by raising wages to attract
those with needed skills who are now working in other
fields--or by importing low-paid workers.
For the longer term, rising wages can guide counselors to
encourage well-prepared students to major in computer science
and engineering, and colleges will adjust to rising demand.
But more H-1B immigrants can have a perverse effect, as their
lower pay signals young people to avoid this field in future,
keeping the domestic supply artificially low.
____________________
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