Low demand for hi-tech jobs

THE "NO Jobs Available" signs are all over, virtual or otherwise. Computer science graduates need not apply according to the mother and father of high-tech graduates.

INA shows the decreased numbers for H-1B working visas, which computer professionals generally belong to and are petitioned in this working visa category. INA (also the Filipino word for mother) stands for the Immigration and Nationality Act, the bible of US immigration laws.

AMA shows signs of diversifying ö away from hi-tech course focus. AMA now offers nursing and healthcare courses, caregivers included. A college of medicine is not far behind. AMA is the biggest computer learning institution in the Philippines.

Hi-tech professionals, computer science graduates are now staring at their monitors, surfing the web and searching the Internet for options. The search results show the same dire prospects: hi-tech jobs are no longer in demand ö at least not in the scale the hi-tech industry experienced from 1995 until the dot.com bomb.

Since Philippine computer or high-tech graduates look mainly to the US for employment opportunities, let us look at the US job outlook. This from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In 2002, manufacturing jobs (to which computer and electronic products belong) accounted for 35 percent of all layoffs. When workers are laid off, they file unemployment claims. The highest number of claims was posted in California -- where Silicon Valley, the information technology mecca, is located -- with 745,638, higher than in any other region in the country.

Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, California recorded the largest number of initial claims filed in mass layoffs: 576,110.

236,000 high-tech jobs lost in 2002

THE ASSOCIATED Press reported March 18, 2003, that US high-tech industry shed another 236,000 jobs last year, continuing a two-year purge that shows few signs of easing.

The report continued that America's high-tech employment, totaled 5.15 million jobs at the end of 2002, a four-percent drop from 5.38 million jobs at the year's outset, according to an analysis by American Electronics Association, an industry trade group, now known as AeA.

Since January 2001, high-tech employers have dumped 560,000 workers to pare their payrolls by 10 percent, according to the report.

Last year, high-tech jobs continued to drop every month of 2002, with slightly more than half of the cuts -- 123,000 jobs -- occurring in the final half of the year.

AeA says before the dot-bomb, high-tech companies boasted about two million manufacturing jobs, more than any other industry. By the end of 2002, high-tech's manufacturing jobs had shriveled by 20 percent to 1.6 million jobs.

The only bright spot in this otherwise gloomy outlook is that software services remains robust, adding 5,300 jobs during the two years ended in 2002. The other side of this good news is that software programming is now being outsourced. Instead of sponsoring H-1B workers ö the working visa for computer professionals -- US-based companies send the work to India, the Philippines, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, South Africa, Russia and Europe, where the cost of labor is 10 times cheaper than in the US. Business Week reported in February 2003 that in 2005 the total jobs moving out of the US would be 588,000, of which 109,000 would be in the computer field. In 2015, the number would zoom to 3,300,000.

Reverse work migration

FORTUNE 500 companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Philips, Accenture and General Electric have sent computer-related work (chip design, software design, consumer electronics, accounting and tech support) to Third World countries that have a pool of skilled workers.

Instead of hiring the workers and paying them high wages, US companies send the work overseas for the same quality work but low overhead and cost/benefit package. Computer professionals do not get to the US but still get wages higher than those paid to local or domestic workers. For info-tech support, for example, a database manager in India gets 500 dollars a month, compared with what the US company would have to pay a US counterpart: 10,000 dollars.

Accountants in the Philippines get paid 300 dollars a month, compared with 5,000 dollars a month that big corporations would have to pay an H-1B sponsored accountant. As the saying goes, why pay for the cow when all you need is a hamburger?

H-1B visas reduced

THE H visa classification was originally enacted in 1952 and includes the H-2 for temporary workers in short supply and H-3 for trainees. In 1986 the H-2 category was further subdivided into H-2A (for temporary workers in agriculture) and H-2B for temporary workers in non-agricultural jobs.

In 1989 the H-1A category was created for nurses through the Immigration Nursing Relief Act. The H-1B was for other professions and occupations other than nurses.

The 1990 Act set numerical limits to the number of H-1B visas that may be issued yearly. H-1Bs were limited to only 65,000 annually. In 1998 the quota was increased to 115,000 up to the year 2000, receding to 107,500 in the year 2001 and returning to the 65,000 level thereafter. The quota was increased to 195,000 in the year 2000 in response to aggressive lobbying campaign and concerns over America's competitive position in the global marketplace. The cap will drop down to the previous 65,000 in October 2003 unless increased by the US Congress this year.

With the unemployment outlook, the prospects of increasing the H-1B visa numbers are dim.

On April 4, 2003, the Bureau of Citizenship Services (BCIS) -- the bureau that took over the services function of the defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service in March 2003 -- announced the usage of the H-1B allocation.

Petitions filed
Petitions approved
2000
299,046
257,640
2001
342,035
331,206
2002
215,190
197,537
The numbers reflect the high-tech job meltdown in 2000. And as industry observers note, the downward trend has been continuing.

Advocates' proposals

IMMIGRATION and business advocates argue that a point system similar to that enforced in Canada and Commonwealth Nations (such as New Zealand and Australia) could be adopted by the United States. Under this proposal, the BCIS can pre-approve certain industries or occupations for H-1B benefits on a quarterly or half-yearly basis. This is a radical departure from the current skills classification and would amplify the prevailing Schedule A and Schedule B occupations, the counterpart of the Nationals Occupations List in the Commonwealth nations.

In Schedule A are occupations considered to be in short supply and therefore have been issued a blanket labor certification. Currently, only nurses and physical therapists are in this category as well as manager and/or executive of multinational companies (in the L-1 visa category). Schedule B occupations are those the US Department of Labor believes need labor market testing, hence individual labor certifications are needed.

In some cases, one H-2B petition could be filed for multiple beneficiaries, such as if a hotel chain need a number of hotel workers. However, the labor certification is still required, meaning the employer still has to advertise the position in a newspaper of general circulation for three consecutive times, conduct the recruitment process and submit the certification for approval. Only then could the H-2B petition be filed.

So, the next time you see or hear an ad extolling the virtues of enrolling in computer science because you could have an overseas job, think twice. The ad may not be misleading because the overseas job is coming to the Philippines. But you are definitely not going to do the work in the US.

The pay might be high by domestic standards: 500 dollars a month. But the US company is saving 9,500 dollars by having the work done here. The news has spread far and wide. Maybe that's why computer schools are also branching out to nursing and care-giving courses?

Crispin R. Aranda is a US-based immigration specialist and executive director of the Immigrant Visa Center +632 411-0806, +632 414-2655 and +632 373.6799. You can also reach him at usvisacenter@yahoo.com or in San Francisco, at +415 834-1052.