STEM – Don’t Let This Happen to Your Job

 

The H-1B (High skill foreign labor) debate centers around the “Computer-related occupations” employment classification.  Computer-related occupations have borne the brunt of High Skill immigration policy,  Computer-related occupations is just 2.57% of the nation’s employment, but averages 46% of all new H-1B visas and 50% of all H-1B renewals.

(Table 1)

(Table 2)

The remaining H-1B visas are distributed among seventeen occupational groups when including, “Occupation Unknown”.  In addition to the H-1B visa, we have the L-1 Intracompany visa, which is nearly identical to the H-1B.  The table below uses the Computer-related occupation percentages from Table 1 (H-1B initial approvals), to estimate population of Computer-related (C&IS) L-1 visas.

(Table 3)

Temporary work visas are only part of the story, we need to examine the “Bright Outlook” occupations that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are always pushing in Employment Projections.  The following table uses BLS Occupational Employment Statistics to determine employment level growth in Computer-related occupations. 

The “USA Jobs Remaining” column is the employment growth/loss with employment granted to temporary immigrants subtracted.

(Table 4)

Of course, H-1B and L-1 visas authorize employment for 3 years. We need to evaluate  the “USA Jobs Remaining” data in 3 year periods. Also note that temporary immigrant data for 2011 is still not published – so the statistic (table below) gets a “free” 117,500 jobs in 2011.

(Table 5)

The “USA Jobs Remaining” entries in Table 5 are a simple aggregate of the corresponding entries in the “USA Jobs Remaining” column in Table 4.  Recall that the 2011 temporary immigration data is unavailable, the  2009-11 statistic will only get worse.

Finally, we need to consider the Computer-related (C&IS) degrees conferred to citizens and permanent residents. Of course, the terms of the H-1B and L-1 visa is that there must be a job waiting upon arrival, so our students take a “back-seat” to the temporary immigrants.

(Table 6)

Some of the citizen and permanent resident students in Table 6 may already be employed, or may be in school full time in progress to a higher degree.  However, when they enter the workforce, they will be competing for employment with foreign students who enjoy a 29 month,  Social Security exempt while under a student visa, intern status on OPT.  (Qualified Foreign Students)

We’ve done a good job of warning American students to stay away from Computer Science majors, In the light of the USCIS announcing more eligible majors for the OPT classification, I assume the immigration lawyers are looking for other STEM occupations to victimize.

Source:

2011 OES Employment level data can be found at  National Cross-Industry 

OES Employment level data (National Cross Industry) for 1999-2010 Here

H-1B Characteristics Reports (2004 through 2010) can be found Here

L-1 visa data can be found Here (Excel)

The 1999 through 2003 H-1B Characteristics Reports appear to be unavailable online, data was taken from archive copies.

Educational data was downloaded from NSF resources before a change to the web interface. I do not know if it is still possible to query the data by residency status.

Reducing the Potential for H-1B Abuse

In any type of war, it’s very important to identify the enemy and their supporters.  The enemy of American IT professionals are foreign labor speculators and foreign Business Process Offshoring specialists.  We can identify both of these enemies in an NAICS Industry classification that contains both of these types of employers

In the war against global labor arbitrage, we have multi-fronts, one is comprised of foreign employers who have broken through our borders and are granted temporary work visas to facilitate offshore outsourcing. A second front is a beachhead comprised of semi-domestic labor brokers, concentrated in the skilled labor occupations, who provide the logistical supply-line for the enemy.

I may have found a useful tool for identifying these enemies of American prosperity; employers in an industry defined as NAICS 54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. Though not all are enemies, some employers concentrated in NAICS 54 have focused on destroying our domestic Information Technology capabilities (Computer-related occupations) for personal gain. In the future, any specialty occupation can and will be targeted in the arbitrage scheme.

According to the IRS, all U. S. employers must obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Associated with the EIN is an NAICS Industry classification, the Industry classification prefix number 54 could be used to automate protections for the American worker by removing carte-blanche business immigration privileges from NAICS 54 employers. Currently, only H-1B Dependent employers and Willful violators are required to conduct labor market tests and advertise open positions to domestic candidates. If an H-1B worker will earn more than $60,000.00 per year, even these modest requirements are lifted.

H1B Dependent Employers


Before making an H1B application, an H1B dependent employer must make "good faith" attempts to recruit resident US workers using "procedures that meet industry-wide standards" and "offering compensation at least as great as that offered to the H1B alien". Given the wide variety of recruitment methods used in different industries, this provision is likely to cause some confusion both for the BCIS and employers. For example, Internet advertising might be in "good faith" and "meet industry-wide standards" for the IT sector, but would it for, say, the engineering industry? This is a matter that will demand careful consideration on the part of H1B dependent employers.


It is worth noting, however, that the recruitment attestation described above is not required by H1B dependent employers seeking to employ aliens with Master's (or higher) Degrees, or those earning in excess of US$60,000. Non H1B dependent employers are not required to make such an attestation in any event.


Source: Workpermit.com

Perversely, NAICS 54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services is an industry that exists to earn a margin on value created by the accomplishment of others. In addition to classifying Offshore Outsourcing specialists, NAICS 54 also contains human resources and domestic consulting firms. Mismanagement and dwindling-receipts for these firms increase the temptation to charge foreign-workers large performance bonds, require personal service agreements (enforced in distant jurisdictions), and encourage fabrication of the foreign-worker’s credentials.

In this hyper-competitive business atmosphere, NAICS 54 employers are dependent upon margins from decreasing wages and foreign incursion into domestic service markets. Without intervention, these employers will destroy themselves and thwart innovation as maturity and employment-security within the industry are further discarded.

The professional sports industry is much like NAICS 54, in that the owners earn margins derived from the player’s skills. In sports, we have rules and referees, many of these rules are enforced so that players do not injure others, but also so they do not injure themselves. Without rules and referees, parents would not allow their children to play and the sport would suffer with substandard recruits. In soccer, we have the “yellow-card,” a warning, followed by the “red-card” which means ejection from the game in all languages.

It is my contention that NAICS “54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services” and all sub-classified employers should be considered “H-1B Dependent” regardless of number of employees -- a default “yellow-card” is issued so to speak.

If the “yellow-card” and “red-card” have no meaning, then the respect for the referee is diminished and violence in the game has no consequence. When the referees have been removed, the business of business is no longer a competitive game and civility is set aside, opponents and competitors become enemies and the game becomes war.

Crossposted to NoSlaves.com