Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony

Post by npalli » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 4:10 AM UTC

roymurdock wrote: post #36

gkoberger wrote: post #5

So, I can't speak specifically to Qualcomm's case, however there's a weird paradox in Silicon Valley. There's both an excess of jobs and excess of employees. This is probably true in every industry (every Starbucks is hiring, yet everyone complains how hard it is to find a job), but it's especially true in tech. The problem is there's a shortage in qualified candidates. Salaries have gotten so high that even the most…

I would posit that Starbucks example is the exact reverse of what you're seeing in the tech industry. Starbucks is hiring, but a lot of the workforce that is unemployed is overqualified with bachelor degrees that they thought would guarantee them a safe job on a nice career track. Upon graduation, they are finding that there is a shrinking pool of jobs for them, and that they'll either have to retrain (do a masters o…

Post by rewqfdsa » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 4:13 AM UTC

chetanahuja wrote: post #50

crdoconnor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the reason behind this too: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/02/26/bill-gates... Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates, Drew Houston, Tony Hsieh and Gabe Newell and Mark Zuckerberg aren't throwing their name and money at learn to code charities out of the goodness of their heart. They're very directly trying to lower the primary cost that their investments face - wages.

"throwing money at learn to code charities out of the goodness of their heart. They're very directly trying to lower the primary cost that their investments face" Wow that's a unique level of cynicism even for this generally cynical forum. I'm speechless. So you see all these efforts to raise interest in computer science in younger generation of Americans and all you can think of is how all these new, enthusiastic pr…

Post by ForHackernews » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 4:14 AM UTC

volaski wrote: post #39

ForHackernews wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then companies better start paying more. This is how supply and demand works. If $130k only gets you incompetents, then it's time to start offering $200k, or whatever the magic number is. Remember: Any time you hear an employer whining about "lack of qualified candidates" be sure to mentally append "...at the rate we want to pay."

Please explain how offering $200k will keep those incompetent guys from applying. I don't see how your "solution" changes anything

Post by ZoeZoeBee » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 4:15 AM UTC

allworknoplay wrote: post #25

ZoeZoeBee wrote: post #4

The very real issue is the use of H1-B visas to drive down the cost of labor across the board. Its not a coincidence that real wages in the US have declined since 1970 while the percentage of population immigrants represent have tripled from 4.7 to over 14%

You're using a real wages figure for the entire workforce, not engineers. Engineering salaries are extremely healthy, while the real minimum wage has also fallen. Unless you have data on inflation adjusted engineering wages, this is a totally misleading/inaccurate argument.

Post by SomeCallMeTim » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 4:17 AM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #41

SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #27

This is a difficult problem to discuss, in large part because not all developers are created equal. There is a reasonable supply of entry-level and low-skill developers. I refer to them as commodity developers: Developers who have a very basic skill set, who can do only a few specific things, none of them with extreme skill, but some of them reasonably competently. They typically do web front-end work, but sometimes…

> Compensation north of $250k-$500k is becoming standard in some areas for such developers. Do you have any more data on this? What skills in which areas are routinely worth north of $250k?