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Software engineers are being hired at much higher rates than any other profession in the US and that has been going up for decades. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/com

Software engineers are being hired at much higher rates than any other profession in the US and that has been going up for decades. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/mobile/software-developers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

jlarocco 8y ago
And so has our pay. But, like I said, there are million other variables besides the size of the labor pool that affect salaries. In general, though, more candidates available for a position means a lower salary. And there are more serious problems with H1B than just lowering salaries. It's very difficult for H1B workers to switch jobs once they're here, and employers (especially contracting shops) use that as leverage against them. And don't even get me started on H2B workers, who often make minimum wage, have to live in employee housing, and have even less recourse than H1B workers because they make far less money. We need better immigration policies, and I don't think tying immigration status to job status is the best way forward.
zjaffee 8y ago
You understand that the predictions for industry growth on those pages are virtually the same as the number of CS bachelor's degree graduates every year. We don't need to important more labor that that which is getting educated inside of the United States short of those who demonstrate extraordinary ability (i.e. those who come into the country on EB1 rather than on H1B).
- femiagbabiaka 8y ago
  > You understand that the predictions for industry growth on those pages are virtually the same as the number of CS bachelor's degree graduates every year. they're not... > We don't need to important more labor that that which is getting educated inside of the United States short of those who demonstrate extraordinary ability (i.e. those who come into the country on EB1 rather than on H1B). We can't produce enough internally, so we do.
  - zjaffee 8y ago
    You're wrong, look at the data. There are 75,000+ graduates of bachelors and masters programs in the US each year, with many more in related majors and in bootcamps, where the BLS data predicts an industry growth for software developers (including standard, applications, and systems) of around 600,000 workers between 2016 and 2026. You can make the argument that many of those with degrees aren't as skilled as companies would like, and in turn they seek employees from abroad, but it's blatently false that the US isn't graduating enough engineers to meet demand.
  - luckydata 8y ago
    That's a lie that's being propagated by tech companies. The US educates more than enough engineers to keep up with demand. The argument about "structural imbalance" in the job market has been debunked over and over again. I assume that it's not lack of google coverage stopping from researching the issue so linking you a few papers won't change your mind one bit, so I won't bother wasting time doing that.
luckydata 8y ago
Your look at the situation is naive at best. The fact that wages are growing doesn't mean they couldn't grow more, or that are growing for everyone. WSJ > https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-look-at-the-h-1b-visa-programs-impact-on-american-workers-1489483811 https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-look-at-the-h-1b-visa-pro... Fortune > http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/h1-b-silicon-valley-wages/ http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/h1-b-silicon-valley-wages/ Science Magazine > http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/05/economists-h-1b-visas-suppress-wages http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/05/economists-h-1b-vi... There's huge age discrimination at work in the tech industry, and older, very qualified workers struggle to find good jobs because tech employers prefer young and naive serfs.

jlarocco 8y ago

And so has our pay. But, like I said, there are million other variables besides the size of the labor pool that affect salaries. In general, though, more candidates available for a position means a lower salary. And there are more serious problems with H1B than just lowering salaries. It's very difficult for H1B workers to switch jobs once they're here, and employers (especially contracting shops) use that as leverage against them. And don't even get me started on H2B workers, who often make minimum wage, have to live in employee housing, and have even less recourse than H1B workers because they make far less money. We need better immigration policies, and I don't think tying immigration status to job status is the best way forward.

zjaffee 8y ago

You understand that the predictions for industry growth on those pages are virtually the same as the number of CS bachelor's degree graduates every year. We don't need to important more labor that that which is getting educated inside of the United States short of those who demonstrate extraordinary ability (i.e. those who come into the country on EB1 rather than on H1B).

femiagbabiaka 8y ago
> You understand that the predictions for industry growth on those pages are virtually the same as the number of CS bachelor's degree graduates every year. they're not... > We don't need to important more labor that that which is getting educated inside of the United States short of those who demonstrate extraordinary ability (i.e. those who come into the country on EB1 rather than on H1B). We can't produce enough internally, so we do.
- zjaffee 8y ago
  You're wrong, look at the data. There are 75,000+ graduates of bachelors and masters programs in the US each year, with many more in related majors and in bootcamps, where the BLS data predicts an industry growth for software developers (including standard, applications, and systems) of around 600,000 workers between 2016 and 2026. You can make the argument that many of those with degrees aren't as skilled as companies would like, and in turn they seek employees from abroad, but it's blatently false that the US isn't graduating enough engineers to meet demand.
- luckydata 8y ago
  That's a lie that's being propagated by tech companies. The US educates more than enough engineers to keep up with demand. The argument about "structural imbalance" in the job market has been debunked over and over again. I assume that it's not lack of google coverage stopping from researching the issue so linking you a few papers won't change your mind one bit, so I won't bother wasting time doing that.

luckydata 8y ago

Your look at the situation is naive at best. The fact that wages are growing doesn't mean they couldn't grow more, or that are growing for everyone. WSJ > https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-look-at-the-h-1b-visa-programs-impact-on-american-workers-1489483811 https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-look-at-the-h-1b-visa-pro... Fortune > http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/h1-b-silicon-valley-wages/ http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/h1-b-silicon-valley-wages/ Science Magazine > http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/05/economists-h-1b-visas-suppress-wages http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/05/economists-h-1b-vi... There's huge age discrimination at work in the tech industry, and older, very qualified workers struggle to find good jobs because tech employers prefer young and naive serfs.