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Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

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Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#61
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better for everyone because the talented H1B employee is no longer shackled to their employer and can leave demanding a higher wage and raising wages for everyone.

> can leave demanding a higher wage and raising wages for everyone. This is simply not believable. More competition for a limited resource (jobs) means lower wages, not higher wages.

I guess you’re proposing eliminating the h1b program to raise wages. That would maybe work but our companies would theoretically be less competitive globally. If we’re going to allow immigration based on professional skills then these people should be fast tracked to having the same employment rights as natives otherwise it creates a subclass of workers that depress wages because those that belong to that group will be too risk adverse to ask for more money knowing that they’ll likely have to leave the country if they get let go.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was probably closer to truth 20 years ago just for lack of experience among lawyers and hr but today h-1b transfer is not hard at all.

The point is not that the transfer is difficult, the point is that finding a suitable new job in the designated time period has a difficulty you can't predict.

are we talking about just switching or getting fired and trying to find new h-1b job? because these are two completely different procedures from uscis standpoint. the claim about h-1b being "indentured servitude" that people are trying to make usually hinges on it being hard to transfer (which is not the case), not the short grace period after getting fired.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#63
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can leave demanding a higher wage and raising wages for everyone. This is simply not believable. More competition for a limited resource (jobs) means lower wages, not higher wages.

I guess you’re proposing eliminating the h1b program to raise wages. That would maybe work but our companies would theoretically be less competitive globally. If we’re going to allow immigration based on professional skills then these people should be fast tracked to having the same employment rights as natives otherwise it creates a subclass of workers that depress wages because those that belong to that group will…

Yes, eliminate H1B.

>otherwise it creates a subclass of workers that depress wages

Again, we can just skip the middle-man here and fix wages by ending H1B.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#64
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a good point that it's very hard to define a shortage by lack of applications, when there is always a certain amount of churn. It would be much better to simply define this as an economic test: 1) Are the prevailing wages for a position rising faster than inflation? 2) Is unemployment in the position both low and remaining flat? Seems hard to claim a shortage if either of those is false, and there is little…

If this was to be implemented, you would see a large lobbying effort by the tech companies around how unemployment is calculated and these numbers would end up being under-reported to keep the supply of cheap labor coming in. You will also start to see people with ties to big tech being hired to actually compile the data.

And that is worse than what you have right now?

The idea of determining skill shortages using data isn’t new, nor is it ineffective. Other countries have been doing it for a while. E.g. New Zealand

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump is at least taking a step in the right direction by changing the H1-B lottery system to favor more highly paid and skilled candidates, but as you say to remove the current rampant abuse it should be made mandatory to pay more than the market rate for the position. Personally I'd just scrap the H1-B program altogether, and let the free market sort it out. H1-B is almost as bad as simply exporting jobs via outsou…

H1B is worse than exporting jobs via outsourcing. With outsourcing we are only competing with other countries for jobs, but with H1B we get to compete with other countries for housing (in our own towns) too.

With outsourcing it's basically impossible to compete since the country being outsourced to has lower salaries for a reason - because they have a lower cost of living and people can afford to accept lower salaries. If you are a US citizen facing US cost of living (housing, real estate taxes, college costs, healthcare, etc, etc), then how can you compete with someone who can afford to do the job for way less ?!

At least with the H1-B they are paying US taxes and spending at least something in the US economy, but outsourcing is also taking US corporate profits, mostly coming from US consumers, and sending it overseas to benefit a different country!

Trump has said that US companies should be more patriotic in their hiring, but nothing will happen without changes to the law or tax code.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#66
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I witnessed employers doing that to get people greencards too. Claim the exact combination of their stack plus experience in the domain is a requirement. Only way to meet that is to have been working the job.

This is referred to as tayloring and it is not allowed. Furthermore you have to have the experience for the job from before you started working for the sponsoring employer, so tayloring can only target your prior experience, not what you learn on the job.

> This is referred to as tayloring and it is not allowed.

Frankly, I'm going to assume that it's not allowed in the same way that speeding is 'not allowed'.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#67
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The H1B system is just so terrible for everyone involved. No job posting requirement for H1B but you have to post the job when someone applies for a green card a decade later?

Agreed that H1B should have better job posting requirements, but this pre-green card check seems like a great mechanism to ensure we're not long-term giving jobs to non-US Nationals

The problem is that temporary worker programs are a bait and switch. It’s impossible to send people back after they’ve been here for a decade. Any notion that the PERM adjustment is another opportunity to double check will be hard to water down the process for the initial H1B visa grant. And then the PERM check will be gamed.

That is, in fact, how the State Department turned the H visa category (created in the 1960s) became a de facto permanent immigration visa long before the 1990 immigration act. It just kept adding administrative exceptions to make it easier for people to stay.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1B is worse than exporting jobs via outsourcing. With outsourcing we are only competing with other countries for jobs, but with H1B we get to compete with other countries for housing (in our own towns) too.

With outsourcing it's basically impossible to compete since the country being outsourced to has lower salaries for a reason - because they have a lower cost of living and people can afford to accept lower salaries. If you are a US citizen facing US cost of living (housing, real estate taxes, college costs, healthcare, etc, etc), then how can you compete with someone who can afford to do the job for way less ?! At lea…

>nothing will happen without changes to the law or tax code

Agreed. We need to incentivize the corporate behavior we want and disincentivize or ban the corporate behavior we don't want.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#69
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The companies are just trying to work with the flawed system that is place. Even if a role is in shortage, it’s impossible for a company by itself to prove that there is a shortage. If in the total market, there are 10000 jobs for “position X” and there are 8000 total US citizens that qualify for that role, if you are a company that has an H1B for the other 2000 positions, there is no way you can prove there is a sho…

You have a good point that it's very hard to define a shortage by lack of applications, when there is always a certain amount of churn. It would be much better to simply define this as an economic test: 1) Are the prevailing wages for a position rising faster than inflation? 2) Is unemployment in the position both low and remaining flat? Seems hard to claim a shortage if either of those is false, and there is little…

> It would be much better to simply define this as an economic test: 1) Are the prevailing wages for a position rising faster than inflation?

We don’t even know what inflation is anymore

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#70
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The companies are just trying to work with the flawed system that is place. Even if a role is in shortage, it’s impossible for a company by itself to prove that there is a shortage. If in the total market, there are 10000 jobs for “position X” and there are 8000 total US citizens that qualify for that role, if you are a company that has an H1B for the other 2000 positions, there is no way you can prove there is a sho…

You have a good point that it's very hard to define a shortage by lack of applications, when there is always a certain amount of churn. It would be much better to simply define this as an economic test: 1) Are the prevailing wages for a position rising faster than inflation? 2) Is unemployment in the position both low and remaining flat? Seems hard to claim a shortage if either of those is false, and there is little…

For tech jobs, the answer to 2 is a resounding no.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/10/the-computer-science-dream...

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