it would probably be useful to know how many of the current layoffs were people on H-1Bs.
Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
281–290 of 350 posts
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to cut through the headline here. The largest chunk of Oracle layoffs were in India [1]. In comparison, they've barely fired any American workers. Contrary to popular opinion, IT workers aren't interchangeable and there exist a large swath of jobs that very few people qualify for (HN should know this) because of the specialization required. America is at near full employment [2]. Replacing American workers with…
From your first link, it says 10% of 28k employees in India were cut. I personally know several people who were laid off from Oracle this week (OCI). One person who's still there described it as a "bloodbath across our division" and says he counted 15k. I don't know what exactly he was counting but as we're in North America I am assuming they're all here. Whereas India layoffs were fewer than 3k. So that directly dis…
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Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#283It's very sad how illiberal hackernews gets when it comes to H-1B visas and immigration in general. People will say that they are concerned about the welfare of H-1B holders because they can't leave their jobs but I've literally never heard anyone suggest an improvement (better portability, etc). Instead all anyone talks about is how bad it is that they have to compete against people from around the world. I think pe…
Bizarre and entitled comment. It is not a human right to immigrate to the United States. The government here is supposed to set policies that are for the betterment of people who are from here. It’s not anti meritocracy to observe that it’s insane and stupid to pretend that every college grad in the United States needs to compete, in their own home country, with a billion people from India and China for work. The only “illiberal” thing I notice when this topic comes up here is that people seem to think the laws of supply and demand don’t apply when we talk about immigration, and thus there’s no effect on wages (wrong). Something must’ve changed, though, since that sentiment is mostly absent in this thread.
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#284I don't understand why American workers would support this program at this scale. Furthermore, I believe universities and other similar researchy/affiliated non-profits are exempt from the hiring caps. I just cannot imagine executives at tech companies/body shops having any positive ethical motivations. More like "they'll do what we say without complaining or they'll go home". There's no way it's not just a hugely ab…
One way or another H1B's got in the door, a lot of them. And at this point they're just hiring themselves. OPT's as well, they will stack the candidate pools with only OPT/H1Bs. Post any job and you will get a flood of thousands of spam resumes. If you ignore them then you put yourself at risk of being accused of discrimination.
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to cut through the headline here. The largest chunk of Oracle layoffs were in India [1]. In comparison, they've barely fired any American workers. Contrary to popular opinion, IT workers aren't interchangeable and there exist a large swath of jobs that very few people qualify for (HN should know this) because of the specialization required. America is at near full employment [2]. Replacing American workers with…
> America is at near full employment Pretty sure that is the U3 rate which only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for a job. The U6 is better and rarely falls below 5%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE
FWIW, I'm not saying we are at full employment for all possible specializations and geography's, clearly some are out and others are in and we have some of the most immobile labor we've seen in a while [1]. The problem, as with many things, is housing. People simply can't (and aren't) moving to where the jobs are.
[1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660752/why-americans-d...
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#286All foreigners, pay attention to the people in this thread. They will often ask you to form unions with them. But what would such a union do? Well logically it would do what these people are asking them to do. And what do you see around you? Does it look like they're in favour of you. Do you think you'd be better off? Remember that the Hyundai workers in Georgia were deported at the best of the local union. Right now…
Yup. Being a supporter of unions means being the opposite of a supporter of globalism. I’m a globalist and fully understand modern disliking of unions.
It wouldn’t be the first time that “labour” found itself completely undone through idealistic foolishness. Bernie Sanders wants to end the H-1B with no replacement lined up. Labor was slain by the Ayatollah in Iran.
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry what? Yes, they do. Second-hand knowledge, though.
No, the requirement is that the job is for a speciality occupation and that the H1B be paid the prevailing wage for that job, not that there was an attempt to hire locally first. For an I-140 PERM (employment based green card) however the requirement is that there was an effort made to hire locally first. Most people on HN are uninformed about this, well actually uninformed in general.
The jobs filled via H-1B are not “specialty” positions, everyone knows this. I know that’s what the visa is ostensibly supposed to be used for, but it’s a very silly thing to pretend at this stage. I agree that many are uninformed on this, and my friends who don’t work in tech think someone on an H-1B visa is like a “particle physics PhD” or something, and not “database administrator” or “backend engineer”.
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. Being a supporter of unions means being the opposite of a supporter of globalism. I’m a globalist and fully understand modern disliking of unions.
It wouldn’t be the first time that “labour” found itself completely undone through idealistic foolishness. Bernie Sanders wants to end the H-1B with no replacement lined up. Labor was slain by the Ayatollah in Iran.
I’m confused, why would we need a replacement for the H-1B “lined up”? The O-1 visa already exists.
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry what? Yes, they do. Second-hand knowledge, though.
No, the requirement is that the job is for a speciality occupation and that the H1B be paid the prevailing wage for that job, not that there was an attempt to hire locally first. For an I-140 PERM (employment based green card) however the requirement is that there was an effort made to hire locally first. Most people on HN are uninformed about this, well actually uninformed in general.
Ah, that was it then. The person in question was probably filing for that instead of trying to get another H1B. Thank you for clarifying!
Re: Oracle files H-1B visa petitions amid mass layoffs
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's not much preventing you from starting a company and not hiring immigrants. This is something I'd encourage everyone with strong opinions about work visas to try and accomplish. You don't change a system by crying about it on anonymous internet forums, you do it by competing against it and making it redundant.
Did you write a patronizing comment because you don't have an intellectual argument? Making comments about an abusive visa program isn't crying. Nowhere have I said immigrants are to blame, nor have I said that we should stop immigration. The H-1B visa program is simply another element of the system that capital uses to abuse labor in the United States. It's not enough that healthcare (if you are even lucky enough to…
Oh I agree with you about H1B being exploitative.
Unfortunately, the current status quo and economic footing everyone enjoys in the US is built on this and similar exploitative behaviors explicitly enabled by the US government for its entire history.
How willing are you to sacrifice your standard of living for the purpose of labor gaining some foothold against capital? The GDP per capita of the poorest US states are more than virtually all socialist countries.