Importing Workers While Firing Americans

compiled by Lewis Loflin

If shipping jobs to low wage Appalachia isn't bad enough, many businesses simply fire their workers and bring in cheap foreign labor in on H-1B and L-1 visas. The problem grows worse today in 2013 as mass immigration and outsourcing continues to depress American labor. I let this stand as a historical record to compare to today. The trends mentioned in 2002 are spot on today.

Here is an example of the problem from http://www.HireAmericanCitizens.org for 2002:

The future trend is quite clear. Employers are not satisfied to replace American citizens on our own soil. They want more. I mentioned in a previous column that employers have been importing so many H-1B workers that it leaves the H-1B workers who are already here no choice but to go back to their home country when their job ends. Remember that employers don't want H-1B workers that are already here. They want fresh ones. The plan is simple.

Train as many foreigners as you can on your software in the United States at reduced rates via the indentured servitude allowed by the H-1B program. Bring so many here that a glut of workers is created so that domestic salaries are reduced, Americans lose their jobs, and foreigners get churned through the revolving H-1B door. That way you create a solid base of foreign workers who are trained on your software, and had to go back to their home country to find work. Then setup shop in their country at salaries even less than if they were here in the United States.

The IDG NEWS SERVICE reports that unemployment in IT related professions has dropped in 2004, while the numbers of people in the professions dropped as well according to an IEEE-USA analysis of numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (BLS)

IEEE-USA blamed the drop in employed software engineers, programmers, hardware engineers and computer scientists and systems analysts on the continuing trend for U.S. companies to send jobs overseas, often called offshore outsourcing.

This contradicts BLS unemployment statistics showing declines in unemployment rates in those fields. The overall number of people employed in IT occupations in the U.S. dropped in the second quarter of 2004 compared to 2003.

The IEEE-USA reported the following:

The number of employed software engineers in the U.S. dropped from 856,000 in the first quarter of 2004 to 725,000 in the second quarter. Yet the unemployment rate among software engineers dropped from 3.3% to 2.9% from one quarter to the next. In 2003, an average of 758,000 software engineers were employed in the U.S.
The number of computer scientists and systems analysts dropped from 672,000 in the first quarter to 621,000 in the second, and the unemployment rate for computer scientists dropped from 6.7% to 4%. An average of 722,000 people were employed as computer scientists and systems analysts during 2003.
The number of people working as computer programmers dropped from 591,000 in the first quarter to 575,000 in the second, although the second-quarter numbers are still higher than 2003's average of 563,000 employed U.S. programmers. The unemployment rate among programmers dropped from 9.5% in the first quarter to 5.7% in the second quarter, according to BLS numbers.
The number of employed computer hardware engineers dropped from 86,000 to 83,000 from the first quarter to the second. The 2003 average was 99,000 employed hardware engineers in the U.S.

Quoting IEEE-USA, "We think a lot of that would be ... people being discouraged and leaving the field...it's kind of strange that the numbers of employed people fell, as well as the unemployment rates." The IEEE-USA attributed much of the employment losses to offshore outsourcing, but didn't mention the H1-B or L-1 visa problems.

A look at 12 years of cable ready socialism in our region:
How CGI-AMS and Northrop Grumman Failed Russell County
How Cable Ready Socialism Failed Southwest Virginia
Sprint Jumps State Line Collects Millions
U.S. Solutions Dumps Bristol Virginia for Bristol Tennessee
Travelocity Fails Dickenson County