Washington, March 14 (IANS)
American businesses are finding it hard to fill skilled positions even
as H-1B visas that bring in foreign professionals, including a large
number from India, are creating jobs in the US, shows a new US study.
Confirming Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' contention that an arbitrary
cap on H-1B visas is forcing them to outsource jobs, the study shows
major US technology companies today average more than 470 job openings
for skilled positions in the US while defence companies have more than
1,265 each.
A second complementary study by the National Foundation for American
Policy (NFAP) found after examining H-1B filings and year-by-year job
totals for the technology companies in the Standard & Poor (S&P) 500
that hiring skilled foreign nationals on H-1B visas is associated with
increases in employment at US technology companies.
The data collected by the Arlington, Virginia-based policy research
group, on "H-1B Visas and Job Creation" show that for every H-1B
position requested with the Department of Labour, US technology
companies increase their employment by five workers.
For technology firms with less than 5,000 employees, each H-1B position
requested in labour condition applications was associated with an
increase of employment of 7.5 workers.
This is particularly remarkable since the actual number of people hired
on H-1B visas is likely to be much lower than the total number of
applications filed with the Department of Labour, said NFAP, focussing
on trade, immigration and related issues.
"Combined, these two studies show that US employers continue to need
skilled labour, including individuals not born in the United States who,
the empirical evidence indicates, are creating new opportunities for US
workers," said NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson.
"While every H-1B hired may not necessarily lead to five to seven
Americans being hired, the data does strongly imply, at minimum, that
new H-1B professionals are complementing other US hires, rather than
displacing them, as critics allege."
According to "Talent Search: Job Openings and the Need For Skilled
Labour in the US Economy", a number of companies have thousands of
skilled positions open, with this level of openings persisting for a
year or more.
This is part of a longer-term trend that threatens to harm America's
economic future, with US companies lacking access to the skilled
professionals needed to grow and innovate inside the US.
More than 140,000 job openings for skilled positions are available today
in the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500. S&P 500 companies employ
only about 14 percent of individuals working in the US, so the overall
demand for skilled labour in the US economy is much greater.
The Department of Labour's JOLTS survey indicates that there are
approximately four million job openings in the US every month at all
skill levels.
The S&P 500 companies with the most job openings as of January 2008 are
Microsoft (4,005), Northrup Grumman (3,925), Lockheed Martin (3,901),
General Electric (3,078), Countrywide Financial (2,415), JPMorganChase
(2,164), Tenet Healthcare (2,050), United Health Group (1,927), Raytheon
(1,694), IBM (1,670), Computer Sciences Corp. (1,666), Cintas (1,664),
L-3 Communications (1,618), Bank of America (1,600), US Bancorp (1,562)
and Cisco Systems (1,504).
These are openings for jobs in the US requiring a BA, professional
degree or higher. The NFAP study also found that even employers that
reduced employment reduced it less if they had filed for H-1Bs visas.
Examining companies in the sample that had layoffs, the regression
results found for every H-1B position requested on a labour condition
application, total employment is estimated to be two workers more than
it otherwise would have been.
Data were used on total employment and H-1B labour condition
applications between 2001 and 2005, allowing calculation of employment
growth for 2002-2005.
An NFAP survey of 120 major US technology companies, with a 22 percent
response rate, indicates preventing companies from hiring foreign
nationals by maintaining a low limit on H-1B visas is likely to produce
the unintended consequence of pushing more work to other countries.
Sixty-five percent of technology companies responding to the NFAP survey
said in response to the lack of H-1B visas they had "hired more people
(or outsourced work) outside the United States".
This is significant in that even if those companies responding to the
survey are heavier users of H-1B visas, it means that these are the
firms most likely to hire outside the US in response to an insufficient
supply of skilled visas for foreign nationals.
Fifty-two percent of companies believed that for every H-1B professional
they hired, it created one or more complementary jobs at their firms or
in the US economy. Twenty-two percent thought the hiring of an H-1B visa
holder created 10 or more jobs.
Seventy-four percent of company respondents said an inability to fill
positions because of the lack of H-1B visas has potentially affected
their "company's competitiveness against foreign competitors or in
international markets".
"The research showing H-1B visa holders are associated with increased
hiring at US technology companies is further evidence that current
restrictions on high skill immigration are counterproductive and the
result of legislative inertia, rather than legitimate concerns," said
Anderson.
"The survey results indicate that when H-1B visa restrictions block
cutting-edge companies from hiring foreign nationals in America,
companies are likely to place more of their human resources outside the
United States."
Urging the US Congress to let more foreign engineers work in the US as
immigration restrictions were forcing US high-tech firms to outsource
jobs overseas, Bill Gates too made the point that the current cap of
65,000 H-1B visas aimed at highly skilled professionals "is arbitrarily
set and bears no relation to the US economy's demand for skilled
professionals".
The NFAP advisory board members include Columbia University economist
Jagdish Bhagwati and Ohio University economist Richard Vedder.
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