"Gary Scholten, a senior vice president and CIO at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, . . . related his IT workforce concerns directly to three Democratic candidates: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sens. Barack Obama and Christopher Dodd."
Among Gary's concerns is that the U.S. is not flooding in a sufficient number of H-1b workers, causing them to have to hire from the local community college, and to set up IT operations in Pune, India.
So what DIDN'T Gary tell the candidates?
Principal Financial Group Headquarters are at: 711 High Street / Des Moines, IA 50392-0001 USA. That is the same address as the LCAs for Principal Life Insurance Company. These LCAs reveal H-1B applications filed by Principal Life Insurance Company:
Approved H-1B applications: 110 Total jobs: 168
Principal's H-1b usage includes many software development positions paying between $43k - $50k.
Gary likely didn't mention that many of these H-1b come through training programs, in the USA, that are closed to American Citizens, for example, through Premier IT Solutions Inc - which cites "Principal Financial Group" among their top clients.
Gary also likely didn't mention that many of the "HELP WANTED" on their website are PERM FAKE JOB ADS, like THIS ONE - run solely to obtain green cards for their dozens of H-1b programmers:
Job Title: IT Application Analyst-(PeopleSoft)
Job ID: 208545
Location: IA - Des Moines
B.S. in computer science, information systems, engineering or related field (or foreign equivalent) plus 5 years experience in the job offered or in a related occupation such as Programmer Analyst or similar duties under a different job title. Experience to include ERP applications (PeopleSoft, Financial Suite, or HRMS suite), PeopleTools, and RDBMS.
THE PROBLEM IS APPARENT: Search for "IT" in Principal Financial Group's job openings. You'll find either positions for new graduates, or positions that require 3-6 years of experience in specific languages and applications. There are NO OPENINGS for Americans with BS degrees and several years of experience, but need the same "on the job training" that is extended to new graduates to get them up to speed.
And as long as employers can flood in H-1b programmers at $43,000, the market forces that would make that happen do not exist.
Shouldn't Presidential candidates get the full story?
