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SOURCE: American Business for Legal Immigration
Companies Call on Congress to Raise H1B Visa Cap
to Help With Worker Shortage
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The top human resource-professionals from Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments and other members of the American Business for Legal Immigration Coalition (ABLI) testified before Congress today about the serious shortage of skilled high tech workers, calling it the most significant issue affecting U.S. manufacturers' ability to grow and compete. As Microsoft's Mike Murray said in his testimony, "The lifeblood of our industry is not capital equipment, but human capital."
Despite the many education and training programs offered by these companies and numerous others, most industries are finding it extremely difficult to recruit and hire qualified information technology professionals. Harris Miller, President of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasizing that "access to the IT industry's basic commodity -- skilled people -- has reached a perilous state." Miller is also a spokesman for ABLI, a coalition of more than 200 business associations and companies.
Referring to a recent ITAA study, Miller said that 346,000 IT positions in all industries are currently unfilled nationwide. And just as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments testified, Miller said that ITAA member companies are dedicated to increasing the number of IT workers domestically, primarily through education initiatives.
Miller noted that while growing the domestic workforce is the critical element of solving the workforce equation, the use of professional foreign workers (H1B category) is the only way to immediately bridge the gap, and even that offers them only a very limited pool of employees.
Texas Instruments' Director of Worldwide Human Resources, Steven Leven, said: "The solution to the shortage is not, as some have suggested, to cut access to foreign talent and wait while the promise of high wages pulls U.S. students through the pipeline. In an industry in which new and different products are developed every 18 months, we cannot afford to wait for a long- term solution and still remain competitive."
Currently, the H1B category allows only 65,000 foreign skilled temporary workers to be hired each year in the U.S. With demand for H1B workers up more than 25 percent in 1997, the 65,000 cap was reached in late August. This year, it is anticipated that the cap will be reached by early summer. Once the cap is reached, companies will not be able to hire foreign professional workers to fill vacancies in the U.S. until the start of the fiscal year in October 1999.
"Congress could enhance U.S. global competitiveness by making it easier for law-abiding employers to hire needed foreign workers through an efficient, timely, and fair process while ensuring U.S. workers' access to the high paying positions offered by the IT industry," Microsoft's Murray told the committee.
Kenneth Alvares, Vice President, Human Resources, Corporate Officer, Sun Microsystems, said, "This deficit of skilled workers, if not remedied quickly, will result in lost business opportunities, slower innovation, and diminished productivity overall. Because of the staggering pace of innovation and change in the high tech industry, you either produce on time and keep up with the cutting edge, or you become obsolete.
"The future of the American high tech industry depends on our ability to find an adequate supply of workers with the skills we need to move forward regardless of their national origin," concluded Sun's Alvares.
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