Lou Dobbs challenges Bill Gates to debate H-1b visa

Bill Gates has asked Congress for an "unlimited number" of H-1b visas. Watch Lou Dobbs ask Gates to discuss the matter. (We suspect that Gates will decline this opportunity to explain to the world his reasons for wanting an H-1b increase.) Lou Dobbs Transcript November 13, 2007 IS HERE



BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no shortage of students studying for careers in Math and Science. There is a shortage of jobs. That's the simply bottom line finding of a new study from the Urban Institute.

The study shows that between 1985 and 2000 435,000 U.S. citizens and permanent residents a year graduated with Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in Science and Engineering. That's three times the number of jobs in Science and Engineering added per year, 150,000 during that time.

Separately Michael Teitelbaum at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation told Congress last week that neither he nor a separate study by the RAND Corporation can find any evidence of worker shortages. These studies are not anomalies.

VIVEK WADHWA, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Bottom line is that all of our research at Duke and now at Harvard shows the same thing. That there is no shortage of engineers; there's no shortage of scientists. Companies aren't going abroad because of skills. They're going abroad because it's cheaper.

Microsoft, Oracle, and Google demand that H-1b remain a source of cheap labor

Microsoft, Oracle, and Google are lobbying the Senate for an increase in the H-1b visa quota, arguing that they have thousands of job openings that they cannot fill with Americans. But is that the true motive?

The DOL prevailing is split into four levels, with level one being about the 17th percentile of what average Americans are paid for the same job classifications. Currently most H-1b use the level one wage. Senator Durbin sponsored an amendment whereby only 30% of the H-1b at any company could be paid at level one. (The remainder could be paid at level two - which would still be below average.)

Oracle's vice president Robert Hoffman, who speaks for CompeteAmerica, opposes the amendment. "Thirty percent is an artificial barrier," said Hoffman.

Why does Hoffman oppose the amendment? Here are the DOL wages for Computer Programmer in Los Angeles:

• Level 1 Wage: $21.59 hour - $44,907 year
• Level 2 Wage: $27.88 hour - $57,990 year
• Level 3 Wage: $34.18 hour - $71,094 year
• Level 4 Wage: $40.47 hour - $84,178 year

The wage for an average-skilled American computer programmer in Los Angeles is over $64,000 per year. Yet Oracle objects to having to pay their H-1b workers more than $44,907.

How do we know that Microsoft, Oracle, and Google do not need H-1b due to a labor shortage?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft received résumés from about 100,000 graduating students in 2004, screened 15,000 of them, interviewed 3,500, and hired 1,000. Microsoft receives about 60,000 résumés a month for its 2,000 open positions.

Working at Google is among the top choices of U.S. graduates, flooding Google with 1300 resumes per DAY.

Software Development Jobs at Microsoft

Bill Gates told the U.S. Senate that he needs more H-1b visas to fill the thousands of open positions at Microsoft. A search for "software development" openings returns 690 matches, but reveals interesting data:

• 22 of the 690 positions were posted today (March 13, 2007)


• Most of the positions were posted after January 20, 2007.

Since it can take several weeks to screen resumes, fly in candidates for interviews, make and accept offers, this reveals that Microsoft is filling the bulk of its positions in a timely manner. Since no H-1b visas are currently available, Gates must be finding sufficiently talented U.S. workers - and this in spite of minimal recruitment efforts, such as not recruiting at any of the 22 CSU campuses in California.

A search for "development" jobs at just one site in India returned 118 positions, which means in proportion to total number of positions, Microsoft is having more trouble filling jobs in India than in the U.S. Yet you won't see him lobbying India to admit an unlimited number of engineers from China.

REQUEST: Displaced and underemployed U.S. workers with BS degrees and several years of experience - please apply for some of these positions and advise us of the results.