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Is there really an IT talent shortage?

informationweek.com

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Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#11

Post by rada »

(Recycling my own old comment).

The whole "shortage of IT talent" hysteria is way overblown when you look at the actual numbers. Just one example, latest DICE salary report:

http://media.dice.com/report/2012-2011-dice-salary-survey/

Contrast the opening sentence:

Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to the 2012-2011 Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals.

... with the actual numbers:

After two straight years of wages remaining nearly flat, tech professionals on average garnered salary increases of more than two percent, boosting their average annual wage to $81,327 from $79,384 in 2010.

So, let's see. While the inflation is chugging along at ~3% per year, we get 2 flat years, followed by a 1% increase? So basically, we make less money each year? Is the tech industry an economic miracle? Are programmers the one must-have product whose prices get lower when it's in short supply and the buyers have pockets full of cash? Or is there a simpler explanation?

Even better, go ahead and play around with same title, different seniority.

Junior iOS programmer: http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=junior++ios+programmer&l...

Senior iOS programmer: http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=senior++ios+programmer&l...

See how juniors get raises, while seniors get flat-lined? That's the downward pressure of H1Bs as well as evidence of buyers' (hiring managers) actual purchasing behavior markedly different from "we can't find anyone who can do basic fizz buzz! we need people with skillz!".

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#12

Post by ktsmith »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #10

The gem in the article is this: Testifying earlier this week on behalf of IEEE-USA, a group representing more than 200,000 technical professionals and students, Bruce Morrison told a Congressional immigration policy subcommittee that the talent needs of U.S. companies would be better served by deregulating the process by which employers sponsor new hires for permanent residency. This would allow foreign workers to pa…

While there are restrictions an individual with an H1-B may transfer jobs even after they've applied for permanent residency. American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21).

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#13

Post by artsrc »

> "[A]t a time when the U.S. economy needs it most, our immigration policies are stifling innovation. The 2013 cap for the H-1B visas that allow foreign high skilled talent to work temporarily in the U.S. was exhausted by June 2012, preventing tech companies from recruiting some of the world's brightest minds."

I don't think anyone argues with this. Just set a lower limit of $200K per year and you can hire as many people as you want with no red tape and no limits.

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#14

Post by epoxyhockey »

ktsmith wrote: post #12
epoxyhockey wrote: post #10

The gem in the article is this: Testifying earlier this week on behalf of IEEE-USA, a group representing more than 200,000 technical professionals and students, Bruce Morrison told a Congressional immigration policy subcommittee that the talent needs of U.S. companies would be better served by deregulating the process by which employers sponsor new hires for permanent residency. This would allow foreign workers to pa…

While there are restrictions an individual with an H1-B may transfer jobs even after they've applied for permanent residency. American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21).

Right. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the thing that prevents them from making a transfer is that the green card application gets reset. That could be a multi-year setback in their path to a green card.

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#16

Post by waps »

rada wrote: post #11

(Recycling my own old comment). The whole "shortage of IT talent" hysteria is way overblown when you look at the actual numbers. Just one example, latest DICE salary report: http://media.dice.com/report/2012-2011-dice-salary-survey/ Contrast the opening sentence: Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to the 2012-2011 Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career site…

"There is an IT talent shortage problem"

- management translator -

"The problem is we're paying IT people more than the minimum wage. Also the minimum wage is too high"

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#17

Post by yuhong »

mncolinlee wrote: post #6

It seems that there are certain skills which are difficult to hire trained workers for. However, the real problem is very, very few IT employers are willing to take any risk and train skilled, U.S. workers. This is the opposite of how technology employment used to work. Factories could not hire enough trained workers, so they trained them on the job. It never ceases to amaze me how HR insists on skills with a particu…

AFAIK 5 years is the minimum length of the mainstream support period for MS products, and is the length for Win2000.

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#18

Post by ChuckMcM »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #10

The gem in the article is this: Testifying earlier this week on behalf of IEEE-USA, a group representing more than 200,000 technical professionals and students, Bruce Morrison told a Congressional immigration policy subcommittee that the talent needs of U.S. companies would be better served by deregulating the process by which employers sponsor new hires for permanent residency. This would allow foreign workers to pa…

This rings a bit more true for me. There is no shortage of workers for enough money. I can offer $100,000/year for an IT worker and get flooded with resumes. The larger companies however like to buy at a discount, and the discount comes from someone in a foreign country taking part of their pay in dollars and part of their pay in the right to work and live in the US. That seems to vary with individuals of course but my observation at Sun, NetApp, and Google was that it could be worth up to 50% of the base salary for an individual to work in the US. That is a heck of a gap to fill.

It would be great if the H-1B system was updated to allow sponsored people to work anywhere as long as it was in the field they had said they were going to work in and they didn't spend more than say 180 days being unemployed. I suspect you would find that a lot of the "push" for more H-1Bs would fade away (although that is just a guess). I'd really like it if we could grant automatic H-1B status for 3 years for anyone who got a doctorate STEM degree as well.

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#19

Post by NateDad »

rada wrote: post #11

(Recycling my own old comment). The whole "shortage of IT talent" hysteria is way overblown when you look at the actual numbers. Just one example, latest DICE salary report: http://media.dice.com/report/2012-2011-dice-salary-survey/ Contrast the opening sentence: Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to the 2012-2011 Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career site…

We haven't had 3% inflation since before the crash of 2009.

Re: Is there really an IT talent shortage?

#20

Post by trevelyan »

NateDad wrote: post #19
rada wrote: post #11

(Recycling my own old comment). The whole "shortage of IT talent" hysteria is way overblown when you look at the actual numbers. Just one example, latest DICE salary report: http://media.dice.com/report/2012-2011-dice-salary-survey/ Contrast the opening sentence: Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to the 2012-2011 Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career site…

We haven't had 3% inflation since before the crash of 2009.

According to the BLS, inflation was 3 percent in 2011. More to the point, the salary increase from 79,384 to 81,327 cited offers an increase of less than 1.5 percent annually. That is lower than inflation for every year in the last ten except 2008.

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-infla...

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