Offshoring & H1 / L1 Job Losses

Source: ireport

The offshoring and H1-B / L-1 importing of cheap high-skilled technical labor has been going on unabated since 1996. Both major political parties have supported it. The cost to the country is staggering. Nearly 2.5 million high paying jobs formally held by Americans have been lost. In the past 10 years, that is over 1 Trillion US Dollars of lost income, lost tax revenue and lost consumer spending. Mostly to India.



Pro-globalization pundits like the NY Times Thomas Friedman have pounded the pro-Business platform saying the money lost will return to the US in terms of increased foreign purchases and trade. I don’t see India buying Boeing Aircraft (they buy mostly Russian or Airbus Aircraft), Caterpillar Earth Movers, GE Generators or John Deer Tractors. They don’t even buy American Agriculture products. India is all about India.



The tag line from the politicians (I've contacted every Representative and Senator from the 5 states I have lived or had an interest in) that we need better education to improve our skilled work force is a total crock.



Three of my closest friends and colleagues have been out of work anywhere from 6 to 18 months. These are all people with over 20 year’s experience. The problem is, they were so experienced they were overpaid according to current Business models.



You can't blame Business. They have to compete globally. When Business has to factor in Affirmative Action, Workplace Discrimination and Disability Lawsuit expenses, which don't occur offshore and are unheard of with H-1 & L-1 workers, it's no wonder they're looking to reduce their costs.



Something has to give. The American High-Tech worker is being squeezed to death from both ends.



Sadly, I don't see any changes coming for at least another 10 years. For my friends and colleagues and eventually myself, that will be too late.

Read more: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-246138

I feel your analysis obviously extends to all sectors including illegal (or undocumented workers). We need a comprehensive immigration, labor, and trade policy that is rational and benefits the average U.S. citizen.

My employer does make a great deal of product for export. We also make a lot of product in those receiving countries, and some of that product ends up back here. I would hate to see this situation disrupted. That being said it is obvious that those countries in which we have a huge trade imbalance trade will need to get evened out.

that was in 1980. An L1 visa is granted when you are transferred internationally by the company you work for. If you work for IBM in London, and they need you in Texas, you enter the country on a L1 visa. It is something that happens all around the world everyday - it is not one way traffic and neither is the inflow of L1 visa holders much higher (if at all) than US citizens being transferred abroad.

Within 15 years of my arrival, I owned a company that employed up to 500 Americans at a time.

I am now retired and just celebrated my 23rd wedding anniversary to my US Citizen husband.

Are you suggesting I shouldn't have come?

I was laid off last year and my duties given to an H-1B visa contractor from India. I got called back a few weeks ago because he screwed up the environment I use to manage. It wasn't all his fault. Systems management underestimated what I did to maintain that environment and wrongly assumed that an H-1B visa contractor who only helped me twice a year to update the data in that environment was enough training for him.

My question, why was I, an American citizen, laid off in favor of an H-1B visa contractor from India? I knew more about the environment and the applications in it than he did. The answer: They just wanted cheap labor. Unfortunately, the end users of that environment suffered the consequences of that bad decision. The environment was down for about 3 weeks by the time I returned and the H-1B visa contractor didn't keep the programs that supported it up to date. It was the end users who hired me back via a contracting firm and they are trying to get me my full time job back. They can't afford to be out of the water for weeks.

I was lucky, but a lot of my fellow American Tech workers are not. Most of us are not entrepreneurs. We're engineers and would rather spend our time creating stuff than marketing. Running a business is not for everyone.

...I arrived on an L1 visa NOT an H1. To qualify for an L1 visa, you have to already be employed by the firm and are transferred into the States by the same company. I was transferred in to train new recruits in Houston. I had worked for several years with people from Houston that had been transferred to London. One of these was offered the job in the US but chose to stay in London instead. I took no American persons job, neither was I cheaper than local labor and the company had to pay all my relocation and setup expenses. As I stated before, the outflow of International Transfers (L1 visas) is equal to, or greater than the inflow. The ratio at my firm was around ten Americans transferred in for every Brit transferred out

I agree that the issue of H1 visas should be re-examined in this economy and adjusted accordingly.

However, the article is badly written by someone ill-informed. H1 and L1 visas are very different animals.

But when we have skilled US Citizens right here why do we have to import people who take away good paying jobs? That is just nonsense

India does buy a lot of American high-tech equipment:

* Air India had placed an order for $8.2 bn to purchase 68 Boeing aircrafts (though that might be in trouble because AI is nearly bankrupt)
* Indian Navy paid $2.1 bn to buy 6 Boeing Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft
* US companies - Lockheed Martin & Boeing are the in race for the $10 bn 126 fighter jet contract (though they might lose because F-16 is ancient & F-18 is expensive compared to MiG-35 on offer)
* Hillary Clinton spent a significant amount of time in her recent trip to conclude a deal to sell nuclear plants to India - a $100 bn market over the next 20 years.

There are reasons why India doesn't buy American (for defense & sensitive areas especially) and that's a separate discussion.

However, i concede to the point that Outsourcing that started as a great business model to bleed off excess demand has turned against engineering talent in high cost countries. I have had a close look at the way the Industry works and i feel that all engineers outside new product development &/or at system architecture level are at the risk of being replaced by low cost resources.

Also, to let you know - the latest trend in India is also the same. Replace high cost resources with freshers/low cost resources wherever it doesn't involve critical applications.