Comments on: Busting H-1B Myths

By: Dv

Dv — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:50:25 +0000

You raised a good point, Blackwood; however, not all H-1B visas are granted for IT positions. A great many of them are also granted for scientific and engineering jobs, for example. For this reason, we can’t use your analysis to conclude that 1/3 of the entire IT workforce consists of H-1B holders either.

By: Blackwood

Blackwood — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 20:02:58 +0000

>In an economy with a total employment of 140 million, that’s slightly more than 1%

A false comparison, because IT jobs are such a small part of the US economy. There were only 499,000 IT jobs in the entire US economy in 2002. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm Bringing in 163,600 each year means that 1/3 of the entire existing IT workforce is being added as H-1Bs EACH YEAR to compete for the limited pool of jobs. Being more in scale with the actual size of the IT job market would mean 20,000 people total per year, not 163,600.

By: Amitabh

Amitabh — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 16:12:15 +0000

I favor labor mobility too, but the idea that labor mobility does not affect wages is just silly. Like any other commodity, the cost of labor depends on competition - whether directly through immigration or indirectly through imports that embed the labor.

By: Prashant Kothari

Prashant Kothari — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 14:18:14 +0000

As the numbers in the table show, there’ve been many years when the H1-B cap wasn’t hit ie, American firms filled their open positions with non H1-Bs.

And more importantly, even at the peak, only 163,600 H1-Bs were hired.

In an economy with a total employment of 140 million, that’s slightly more than 1%!

Unfortunately anecdotes and “human element” stories make for more compelling copy (just like the entire “outsourcing” brouhaha — http://indianeconomy.org/2005/07/16/much-ado-about-nothing/)

For instance, a story about how an American hasn’t got a job because a firm is hiring only H1-Bs makes the rounds so much so, that the popular perception springs up that H1-Bs are “overwhelming” the American labor force.

It’s ironic that the anti-H1B crowd is similar to the anti-outsourcing crowd. If a firm can’t hire enough engineers/ workers on-shore, they’ve got NO CHOICE but to go offshore.

By: Reuben Abraham

Reuben Abraham — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 16:46:14 +0000

The cap on visas and the like is a classic non-tariff trade barrier. Pipe-dream or otherwise, I think developed countries need to realise this. They seem to have no issues with asking developing countries for free movement of goods/capital and then setting up quotas when it comes to free movement of labour (the one commodity that developing countries have a comparitive advantage in).

By: Arjun

Arjun — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 13:58:05 +0000

This is a very good intervention by the WSJ. At some level, the H1 B hysteria is silly, given how small the numbers are.

I too am in favor of complete labor mobility. In fact, I would actually prefer complete mobility of labor to that of capital, only because of the power issues involved, but that is pipe dreaming…