In the above graph of average salaries and unemployment rates for computer and IT occupations from 1992-2011, wages for IT workers have held steady over the past decade. The inflow of guest workers is equal to half of all IT hires each year and fully two-thirds of annual hires of workers younger than 30.Ĭan it be a coincidence that wages in IT jobs have been stagnant for over a decade? The chart below shows trends for programmer and system analyst jobs wages for other IT occupations follow similar trends. Our analysis of the data finds that high-skill guest worker programs supply the preponderance of all new hires for the IT industry. We’re Already Generating More Qualified Students Than Jobs But policy should not be about targeting government giveaways to a few industries by supplying ever more guest workers when there is an ample domestic supply of qualified graduates and workers. We welcome immigrants and support an immigration policy that draws the best and the brightest and provides opportunity to newcomers. Researchers like us, who have the temerity to suggest that the evidence fails to justify importing ever more guest workers, are accused of being anti-immigrant, anti-capitalist, Luddites, or just plain troglodytes who can’t fathom the character of modern technology industries.įor those of us who simply want to get the policy right, however, this is a debate about America’s policies for creating good jobs, strong technology and an innovation-based economy. The IT industry and its many supporters argue that without this infusion of guest workers it will starve because of the scarcity of domestic native and foreign-born citizens with the right aptitude or interest. With its passage of the comprehensive immigration reform bill, the Senate has complied, putting out a sign for IT jobs that says, “We prefer guest workers.” It is no coincidence that high-tech industries are now using guest workers to fill two-thirds of new IT jobs.Īnd now they’re asking Congress to provide them with an even greater supply of guest workers - a supply that by the IT industry’s own estimates would equal 150 percent of the expected number of new IT jobs each and every year going forward. Fifteen years later, average real IT wages are no higher. Salzman, Lowell and Kuehn: When Bill Clinton was president, wages for American IT workers were climbing and American students were clamoring to become computer scientists. Thursday, a former guest worker, now Silicon Valley guru, responds. Daniel Kuehn is an adjunct professor and doctoral candidate in American University’s department of economics.
Lindsay Lowell is director of policy studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University.
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development and the Edward J. Hal Salzman is a professor at the John J.
Today we present the case against high-tech guest workers from a trio of academic researchers associated with the Economic Policy Institute. Paul Solman: A battle rages in economic policy circles: Should America make its borders more open to high-tech guest workers, or should we batten the hatches? Even those who oppose totally open immigration often support temporary guest worker visas, known as H-1B work visas, for high-tech.īut some oppose them, arguing that - as in other industries - workers from abroad undercut the wages of those domestic workers who would otherwise do the jobs here in America. Foreign guest workers depress wages for domestic workers, the authors argue.
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