FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

President Bush Lies about U.S. Tech Labor Shortage

Contact: Mr. Kim Berry - President of www.programmersguild.org

SACRAMENTO February 3, 2006 - For the past several years immigration attorneys and cheap labor advocates have propagated the lie that "there are more high-tech jobs in America today than people available to fill them." Yesterday President Bush joined the chorus, making the same false claim at 3M Corporate Headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota.

The President's claim is incorrect. According to BLS data analyzed below, the unemployment rate of U.S. tech workers has exceeded the overall unemployment rate for the past several years.

The President followed this claim with a call on Congress to raise the cap on the H-1B. He concluded by stating "Of course, we want every job that's ever generated in America filled by Americans, but that's not the reality today."

Why is that not the reality today?

The current H-1B visa cap admits 85,000 foreign tech workers into the U.S. each year, plus exemptions for certain employers. In 99.9% of cases there is no requirement that employers first consider qualified Americans. Instead, as a re cent study illustrated, Congress has enabled employers to engage in "onshore offshoring" - using that H-1B to "offshore" their work to cheaper foreign workers - while allowing those foreign workers to reside in the U.S.

Before calling upon Congress to increase the H-1B cap, the President should call for minimal safeguards to the H-1B program, such as those proposed by Congressman Pascrell (D-NJ-8) in his “Defend the American Dream Act of 2005” H.R. 4378.

Roy Lawson of the Programmers Guild has analyzed the unemployment rate of U.S. tech workers, according to BLS data. Note that these figures to not include U.S. tech workers who have given up searching, or who are employed stocking shelves at Circuit City or WalMart. In October 2004 the San Jose Mercury News reported that "half of the Californians working in tech in 2000 have left the field." These facts and data below belie the President's claims of a "labor shortage." BLS data in 2003 suggested an actual unemployment rate for programmers of 31%.

The Programmers Guild endorses H.R. 4378 and calls upon Congress to act in the spirit of President Bush's goal of filling American jobs with Americans by refusing to flood in more cheap foreign workers, but rather to support H.R. 4378 to bring the current displaced and unemployed U.S. tech workers back into the workforce.

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This first graph compares the unemployment rate in two fields with the average of all occupations. Yellow is Computer and Math (almost always above average, and predominately computer-related) and Blue is healthcare which is almost always below average. So while healthcare was at one point 60% below average at the same point computer occupations were 120% above average - a staggering difference of 180%.

This next chart shows how Congress assaulted the IT profession by raising the H-1B cap to to 195,000 per year for three years - flooding in 500,000 foreign workers even as the total number of jobs was dropping.

The actual number of unemployed U.S. workers rises as H-1B workers flood in to displace them

http://www.earnedmedia.org/wh02021.htm

Remarks by President Bush on American Competitiveness

To: National Desk

Contact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580

MAPLEWOOD, Minnesota, Feb. 2 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The following text is of remarks by President Bush on American competitiveness:

3M Corporate Headquarters

Maplewood, Minnesota

11:50 A.M. CST

Now, in the meantime, there's another issue that I want to discuss right quick -- two other quick issues, then you'll be liberated. (Laughter.) One of them is, there are more high-tech jobs in America today than people available to fill them. And if that's -- so what do we do about that? And the reason it's important, and the American citizen has got to understand it's important, is if we don't do something about how to fill those high-tech jobs here, they'll go somewhere else where somebody can do the job. In other words, there are some who say, we can't worry about competition. It doesn't matter, it's here. Don't worry about it, do something about it. It's a real aspect of the world in which we live.

And so one way to deal with this problem, and probably the most effective way, is to recognize that there's a lot of bright engineers and chemists and physicists from other lands that are either educated here, or received an education elsewhere but want to work here. And they come here under a program called H1B visas. And the problem is, is that Congress has limited the number of H1B visas that can come and apply for a job -- a H1B visa holder can apply for a job at 3M. I think it's a mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in America -- to limit their number. And so I call upon Congress to be realistic and reasonable and raise that cap.

We'll educate our kids. That's the goal. Of course, we want every job that's ever generated in America filled by Americans, but that's not the reality today. In order for 3M to remain competitive, in order for this job base to remain strong, in order for us to be a leader in innovation, we got to be wise about letting kids come here who've got the skill sets needed to fill the jobs that help us remain the leader in the world.