My news and social media feeds are almost universally negative about this.
Who is happy about H1B Visa suspension? Who was advocating for it?
Who is happy about H1B Visa suspension? Who was advocating for it?
H1Bs aren't stupid are they're not exactly desperate for work opportunities either.
FAANG companies are not hiring H1-B's because it's cheaper. I have been a hiring manager at a couple of FAANG companies, and I can tell you it's just not something we cared about.
The only thing I cared about was finding the most qualified people for the team. I had headcount to fill, and it wasn't like that headcount had one salary band marked "For Citizens" and another marked "For H1-Bs". The compensation systems at FAANGs are for the most part formulaic.
If FAANG want cheap engineering labor they outsource and use contractors, simple as. And it's those companies - the Infosys and Wipros of the world - that are arguably are the biggest abusers of H1-B.
However, curious -- do these include stock grants, etc? I wonder if the posted numbers are only salary and not TC?
* It's base alone - no bonus, no stock
* It's base at the time you get on the visa - so mine was two years and some 80k out of date near the end
* My employer at the time used a standard letter for the four or so of us so we all have the same base listed but I know we didn't have the same base. It looks like it was the lowest value. Presumably they just kept the thing that was working.
There's a hell of a lot of problems with hiring practices worldwide, but qualified software engineers are not abundant.
Supply and demand isn't just about what's out there right now, it's about elasticity of both curves. When prices rise, supply increases, and demand decreases.
What you've said indicates that prices are so low that demand is very high, and supply is very low.
Yes, it does take a while, in some fields, for supply to ramp up - but bidding wars for the existing supply are part of the mechanism that increases the prices and signals to people with choice that software engineering (as opposed to, say, finance or corporate law) is the way to go.
There's a pretty strong case to be made the the H1B is specifically designed to create a population of software engineers who are not allowed to respond to market signals that would cause them to stop being software engineers in order to do something else (or perhaps not become a software engineer in the first place).
So back the the original question - compensation. What compensation package were you offering to compete for those rare and highly valuable software engineers you wanted to hire?
Is not this the problem? The vast majority of vacancies I see as well as recruiters offers do not have salary. So I just ignore them. This is also why FAANG has no problem getting candidates and can haze them to their heart's content. Even though they do not list salary too, people have high expectations and apply in huge numbers.
You are already contributing to someone's near poverty living if you pay taxes. See social security and unemployment insurance as examples.
For places like these, it's the market's demand for cheap ramen (or whatever) that means the difference between someone living at poverty level and having no livleyhood at all.
Also, they are not banning H2-A seasonal worker visas, i.e. temporary farm workers, furthering in the fact that this administration does not care about unemployment, given that most jobs lost because COVID-19 are blue collar and lower wage service jobs.
In short, this is a move that appeals to the "America first" supporters, but has little productive value.
Mostly, hard-right Republicans have been advocating for it, but I suspect a lot of labor (who has been raging against H-1B for a while) is happy with the policy of suspending H-1B visas, though quite dissatisfied with the politics, which is why you want hear any public support from them on it. (I favor abolition of H-1B as part of wider immigration reforms, but think that both the immigration suspension in general and the addition of various economic non-immigrant visas, including H-1B, to it in particular are bad policy, in the interest of disclosure.)
I am anti these anti these "skilled/shortage" programs so I can play devil's advocate if you want to understand the position?
My plumber is protected from immigrants trying to "steal" "his" job and I gave to pay him more as a result. But I am a high skilled worker. So my employer can get a skilled visa to replace me. That means my wages etc are depressed. So I am being punished for working hard to upskill and investing and taking the time to find and master a shortage subject. Meanwhile the guys too busy drinking to finish high-school get a monopoly on low skilled positions. What sort of logic is that?
Also, is it morally right to tempt over skilled workers from less developed countries? One reason there are so few doctors in Africa is because they can come here with a bit of work once they graduate. So we generate a perpetual brain drain. A doctor who saves lives in a poor country will come here to do boob jobs and tummy tucks because its nicer here and who doesn't want 100k a year for a 9-5?
I personally don't think there is a "right" answer to how to run an immigration system. But the current system (these visas included) is very corrupt as far as I can tell. So a hit from the (stupid dumb) trump hammer isn't the worst thing, the machine doesnt work anyway imho.