High Tech Visa Demand Slows Down

Join the Discussion "Am I still in status, given that my final paycheck won't be in until the end of this month and that my visa sponsor does not intend to cancel my visa and I already have signed up for a new job?" MAX5230   Related Resources • Influx of H-1B Apps • The New H-1B Law • H-1B Bill Passed • Senate Votes on H-1B • Indentured Service • Green Cards & Visas  From Other Guides • Tech Job Search  Elsewhere on the Web • ITAA Study

As technology, Internet and telecommunications companies start handing out pink slips and toning down ambitious projections, so has the high tech visa craze been dwindling, and fast.

Just last year companies were petitioning lawmakers in a frenzy, claiming that there aren't enough high-tech workers to go around in the USA. More immigrants were needed, and fast, claimed corporate execs. Twelve months later the story is quite a different one. In a study released by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), that urgent demand has dropped by some 44 percent. Although employers still claim a shortage of qualified applicants, this is somewhat curious considering the ambiguous economic and job climate.

According to the report, the need for high-tech workers has gone from about 1.6 million job openings in the year 2000 to some 900,000 in 2001. The economic downturn and possible impending recession are, not surprisingly, credited with the decline. Another factor may the the increasing number of those who already have technical skills and jobs now, says the report. In the year 2000 there were 10 million high tech employees. In 2001 that number increased to 10.4 million.

Some disagree with the report's conclusions, claiming that training of American workers has proven effective and that the high tech worker shortage has always been a fabricated crisis.  Many are up in arms over the fact that American minorities and women are not being recruited for high-tech positions before foreigners are brought in.

The ITAA has been in favor of the H-1B visa cap increases. Though they don't expect the cap to be met this year, the organization's president, Harris Miller believes that the marketplace will determine demand and that a reasonable cap will allow that flexibility to occur naturally.

Other studies have revealed that many immigrants would prefer to stay in their home countries if economic factors, including the job market, were favorable. The good news for many is that while demands for US tech workers slows down, high tech industries in other countries are experiencing a boom, and many high tech workers may be able to find well paying jobs in their own backyards.