Workers Blast ITAA Study Claims

Date: Thursday, June 06, 2002 9:34 AM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

Get the Facts on H-1B at
www.ZaZona.com

Pay particular attention to how ITAA get their shortage figures. They
did a
telephone-based survey of 532 managers. I think they should do a
telephone
survey of unemployed computer programmers. Harris Miller can start by
calling me.

http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/recruiting/story/0,10801,7
1641,00.html

Workers Blast ITAA Study Claims

By MELISSA SOLOMON
JUN 03, 2002

With 35 years of IT experience and expertise in C++, Java and other

technical skills in high demand, Warren MacQueen thinks he should have
no
problem landing a job.
But the Kansas City-area IT veteran said that after falling victim to
mass
layoffs at Sprint Corp. in November, he sent out 100 resumes and heard
back
from only a handful of companies. "I don't think that my skill set is
inadequate," he said.

MacQueen is one of scores of IT workers who were angered by last month's
Information Technology Association of America report, which claimed
there's
a shortage of U.S. workers with the right IT skills [QuickLink: 29607].

The study projected that despite a 5% dip in the IT job market last
year,
upward of 1.1 million jobs will be created this year. However, it
continued,
less than half of those will be filled because workers don't have the
right
skills. Critics claim that there aren't any jobs in sight and that the
supposed IT skills shortage is a myth perpetuated by big business and
lobbyists trying to preserve the current employers' market.

"[The study] doesn't seem to jibe with the facts, so you question if
there's
a hidden agenda or just a lack of judgment," said Ray Hooker, a
networking
consulting engineer at Cisco Systems Inc.

However, ITAA spokesman Bob Cohen said the report is a forecast rather
than
an indicator of current conditions. A telephone-based survey of 532
managers
across a variety of industries found that companies are struggling to
find
workers with technical expertise, domain knowledge and project
experience,
he said.

"People's frustration is understandable, because times have changed and
it's
more difficult to drive your career than it was in 1999 and 2000," said
Cohen. "But you can't overlook what the requirements are or what the
hiring
companies' views are."

One factor fueling the uproar over the study is that the Arlington,
Va.-based ITAA is one of the nation's biggest supporters of the H-1B
temporary foreign visa program.

Some critics charged that the skills shortage study was just an attempt
to
persuade Congress to raise the H-1B cap and flood the IT job market with
lower-paid foreigners in order to drive down salaries.

Hooker said he's not opposed to the H-1B program and added that many
foreign
workers are better educated and more up to date on IT skills than their
U.S.
counterparts. But, he said, American workers with significant job
experience
who are equally or more qualified are being shut out by an oversaturated
job
market.

"We wouldn't want to allow undercutting of existing [U.S.] workers,"
said
Hooker. "I respect [foreign workers'] skills, but a 25-year-old with two
years' experience is still a 25-year-old with two years' experience."

Tom Scott, president of the San Diego Oracle Users Group, is one of many
skeptics of the skills shortage who said he often sees phony job
listings
likely geared toward hiding the job shortage. Scott and others say they
can
tell the ads are phony because the job listings typically ask for an
impossible combination of skills and certifications. "They want every
acronym under the sun for $30 [an hour]," Scott said.

Another issue is an age-old problem: human resources professionals who
lack
IT skills but are responsible for filling highly technical posts.

But that argument is always used when the market is down, countered the
ITAA's Cohen.

"In good times, [recruiters are] brilliant, and in bad times, they don't
know what they're doing," he said.

Different Perspectives

Indeed, the ITAA's contention that companies are having trouble filling
jobs
does have some backing. Hiring managers are split on the
job-shortage/skills-shortage debate, with some supporting the findings
that
were detailed in the ITAA's report.

At Delaware Investments in Philadelphia, IT jobs are scarce-as are jobs
across the company-because they're being filled only if they're deemed
critical, said company spokesman Tom Gariepy.

IT job openings at Lockheed Martin Corp. are also down, though not as
drastically as at other companies, said Don Peterman, director of
employment
for the company's Delaware Valley Regional Recruiting Center.

Last year, Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed filled about 700 IT jobs, and it
expects to fill about half that number this year, said Peterman. Since
the
middle of last year, every job opening at the company has generated a
flood
of resumes, with more than enough qualified candidates, he added.

Still, finding qualified IT candidates to fill open positions is a big
challenge, said Nicole Tucker, a recruiter at Philadelphia-based Peco
Energy
Co., a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.

"It's really tough for us to find very specialized people," she said,
adding
that applicants for the eight to 10 high-level IT jobs that open each
year
lack either degrees or business knowledge and project management
expertise.
The company often decides to hire its contractors for full-time jobs
because
they have developed the right skill sets while at Peco, Tucker added.

Kathy Walters, vice president of IT at Exelon's energy division in
Philadelphia, said her unit is fully staffed now. But when positions do
open
up in the division, Walters said, she gets many resumes but few from
qualified candidates.

"Finding the right match for what you have to spend is tough," Walters
said.

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