Employment statistics from the US Department of Labor show what most IT people have already realized: IT jobs are getting harder to come by. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13,000 jobs in the information industry were cut in July, bringing the total to 44,000 year over year.Expansion of H-1b visas may have played an important factor in accelerating this trend—and making the overall effects worse. Each H-1b visa holder displaces a US worker—and has the potential to make outsourcing easier because the H-1b visa holder likely has contacts and language skills applicable to an outsourcing destination.
The US badly needs to write legislation that accurately reflects the value of US immigration rights. The way H-1b legislation was written means that companies will be actively displacing US workers even when there is a contraction in specific industries.
