High-Tech Companies Will Not Hire Americans but Will Hire Cheaper H-1Bs

Dr Norman Matloff's Testimony to Congress on the subject:

There is no shortage of programmers. Companies just want cheap workers on H-1B visas:

Employers only hire about 2% of their software applicants, and they admit that they reject the vast majority of their applicants without even an interview. If employers were so desperate, they could not afford to be so picky.

Both government and private data show that average wage increases for programmers have been mild, 7 or 8%, and again contradict the claims of huge shortages. The industry's own study estimated that the claimed `shortage' is only driving up salaries by 3%. If employers were desperate, they would be willing to pay much higher wage premiums.

And though figures like 7 or 8% are a few percentage points above inflation, they are still very mild. If employers were desperate to hire, as they claim, they would certainly be willing to pay a premium of more than 7%. Wages in almost all professions have been going up at least this much. Surveyors and dieticians saw their salaries increase far more than programmers in 1997, beating inflation by 20% and 17%, respectively.

It is a very interesting read older workers as young as 35 are being discriminated against and American workers have to leave the field because Employers do not like to hire them because they want low wage labor.

The Programmers Guild website has information and assists unemployed programmers!
http://www.programmersguild.org/