Demand for IT workers
The shortage of Information Technology (IT) skilled engineers has created a new war – the war for talents in the U.S. Anybody who works in technology industry know that competition for top skilled workers is fierce but currently it has reached a level that never seen before.
For many years, salaries for software engineers in the U.S. have always been the highest in the world. For example, entry-level graduates with a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from top universities like Stanford, MIT or Carnegie Mellon were getting $85,000 to $110,000 a year plus a signing bonus. Even during the 2008- 2011 financial crisis where many people lost jobs, technology workers were still doing fine, although the hiring was slow but people were not losing jobs.
Beginning in 2012, Facebook and Google started to compete for software engineers and willing to pay over $100,000 for entry-level position. Other companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, and Amazon also matched that and forced others to raise their salaries too. Experienced software engineers who were making $125,000 to $160,000 knew about the demand for their skills began to look for better jobs. This drove the salaries up to a new high of $150,000 to $180,000 on the average. The specialized skills such as Big Data analytics, System Security, and Mobility drove the salaries much higher to new level of $170,000 to $210,000. For the first time in history, salaries of software engineers have by-pass medical doctors, who for century always have the highest salaries.
The high demand and high salaries also lead to a massive “Import” of foreign workers to the U.S, especially in Silicon Valley where there is high demand for workers. An Indian software engineer told the local newspapers: “I have three years of experience and making $36,000 a year in Bangalore but since I get a job at Facebook, my starting salary is $120,000 work plus $20,000 sign in bonus. Now I can buy a new car and support my entire family in India.” A Chinese software engineer with a Master degree said: “It is unbelievable, I just graduate from a Chinese university with no experience but I specialize in Big data analytics and know Hadoop very well, Google is willing to offer me a $125,000 a year which is ten times what I can make in China.” The U.S laws require that any foreign workers that work in the U.S should receive the same salaries as other U.S workers. Since 2010, the number of IT skilled foreign workers in the U.S. have reached over three hundred thousand but still not enough to meet the high demand.
Today technology industry in the U.S. is going through a major “renaissance time” with new technologies and innovations where technology business is exploding and every company is hiring. A senior executive said: “We are moving from the 20th Century to the 21st where there are many new technologies and opportunities. To do that successfully we need to have more technology workers but we do not have enough skilled technology people in the U.S so we must open our door for foreign workers who have degrees in computer science, software engineering or information system management to come and work because getting those skilled workers is "a matter of life or death for our tech industry".
As a solution, the immigration reform bill currently being debated in the U.S Senate suggests increasing the number of H-1B visas for foreign workers offered each year from 85,000 to 110,000, and making an exception for foreign students who are graduating with degrees from U.S universities to stay and work to support the fast growing technology industry. Technology executives from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple etc. have come to the senate and congress meetings to testify that the current limit on visas is too low and need to increase much more, and by not allow highly skilled foreign workers to come and work will destroy the "Innovation economy" that has helped the U.S. to remain the strongest economy in the world.
When Secretary of State John Kerry visited India for the US-India Strategic meetings, he was surprised that the main topic was not about military collaboration but how many H-1B visas should be issued for Indian engineers each year; and how to expedite the process they have to go through to get those special visas. The simple reason is a new shift in U.S. policy to reduce IT outsourcing but allows more IT skilled workers to come and work has open a new business for Indian companies to bring more workers to the U.S.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
