IEEE USA presses Congress on visa curbs

Date: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 3:46 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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http://www.theworkcircuit.com/story/OEG20030326S0029

IEEE USA presses Congress on visa curbs

By Margaret Quan, EE Times
March 26, 2003 (12:29 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.theworkcircuit.com/story/OEG20030326S0029

MANHASSET, N.Y. An industry group is pressing Congress to investigate
H-1B visa abuses and the outsourcing of jobs the group said is putting
a "squeeze on jobs in the U.S. high-tech industry."

IEEE-USA President-Elect John Steadman asked Congress to "take a close
look at overseas outsourcing to see what can be done to create and keep
high-value, high-tech jobs here in the U.S." The request came in
response to AEA workforce report that the U.S. industry lost 560,000
jobs from January 2001 to December 2002.

Steadman said his group is worried that U.S. companies are eager to
move jobs overseas to cut costs while U.S. engineering and computer
science unemployment remains high.

"During roughly the same time period our nation lost more than
half-a-million high-tech jobs, both blue collar and professional,
799,700 new or renewal H-1B visas were issued," he said.

Steadman also cited a report in Business Week, which reported that
another 329,000 people were working in the U.S.on L-1 visas in 2001,
many in the high-tech sector.

The L-1 visa program is intended to be used by multinational
corporations for intra-company transfers, but employers use it to hire
outsourcing firms that can move workers to the U.S. from other
countries where labor rates are cheaper.

The unemployment rate for electrical and electronics engineers hit 4.2
percent in 2002 while the jobless rate for computer scientists reached
5 percent. Thousands of unemployed engineers, computer scientists and
recent college graduates are having difficulty finding employment
"because many of the jobs are taken by cheaper, foreign labor,"
Steadman said.

The group wants lawmakers to probe "why we continue importing thousands
of new workers through the H-1B and L-1 visa programs," said Steadman.

Separately, IEEE-USA 2003 president Jim Leonard contacted lawmakers
earlier this month asking them to limit the number of H-1B visas
available and to ensure that more H-1B fees are used for specialized
instructional needs for engineers. Fees are currently used for
entry-level training.

Leonard also urged Congress to drop the current H-1B visa cap of
195,000 and return to the historical level of 65,000. The cap would
drop to the previous level on Oct. 1 without congressional action.

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