Still, visas run out quickly, often leaving graduating seniors waiting months to begin a job and employers waiting to fill critical positions. Employers are clamoring to increase the quotas for high-tech workers, so federal lawmakers are proposing legislation to address the shortage. The H-1B visa bills in Congress this session generally propose to raise the limit to around 200,000 per year. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has indicated that immigrant workers are vital to preserve our phenomenal economic growth. While the pool of official unemployed and those otherwise willing to work may continue to shrink, he says, there is an effective limit to new hiring, unless immigration is uncapped.
Unfilled jobs raise inflation threats, squeeze profit margins and threaten prosperity.
We re now competing with Europe, Canada and Australia for the best and brightest highly trained workers in the world. U.S. companies bringing in foreign professionals usually do so only as a last resort, as it s a long and difficult process. The employer must guarantee the prevailing wage or better, assure that the professional will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. colleagues, give U.S. workers notice of the foreigner s presence and certify that there s no strike or lockout at the worksite. Making these guarantees, finding the right professionals and then bringing them to the United States is an expensive, months-long process. But in a tight labor market, with technological skills in high demand, employers have little choice but to leapleap those hurdles.