Study suggests US companies use overseas workers to cut wages

[PETRUS]

Skills shortage? What skills shortage?

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco

An extensive study of the US labor market has shown that the skills shortage which technology firms are constantly complaining about is overstated and firms may instead be using overseas workers to drive down wage costs.

In a paper for the Economic Policy Institute by Hal Salzman of Rutgers University, Daniel Kuehn of American University and B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University, the team studied the market for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

If there was a shortage of IT jobs then you'd expect wages to rise, but in fact the team found wages in the field (on average) peaked in 2001 and have remained flat ever since, and in some cases have fallen over the last 14 years. The reason, according to the research, is that overseas workers are being recruited to keep wages low.

The researchers found that the US produces a surfeit of STEM graduates, but only half of them are hired. The rest of the jobs in the IT industry, primarily entry-level positions for the under 30s, are filled using foreign workers and may account for up to 50 per cent of new hires...

Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/us_companies_foreign_comapies_study/

[Brickbat]

1. Well, no shit.

[BethanyQuartz]

11. Sums it up.

Who actually believes this shit?

[Myrina]

2. Gee, what genius came to THAT conclusion?

I'd really like a job working up 'studies' like that. Seriously.

[djean111]

3. In other news, water is wet. n/t

[Moondog]

4. In other news,

a study has found that the sun rises in the east.

[HughBeaumont]

5. LINCOLN SHOT! TITANIC SINKS! BENEDICT RESIGNS!

Corporations are greedy and malicious, WHOODA thunk??

[Enrique]

6. headline of the day

dry British understatement at its best.

[Life Long Dem]

7. H-1B visas go to outsourcing firms

"In fact, Senator Durbin went on to brand the top Indian IT companies as outsourcing firms. "These outsourcing firms like Infosys, Wipro, Tata and others -- Americans would be shocked to know that the H-1B visas are not going to Microsoft; they're going to these firms, largely in India, who are finding workers, engineers, who will work at low wages in the US for three years and pay a fee to Infosys or these companies," Durbin alleged."

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/top-us-senator-accuses-tcs-infosys-wipro-of-abusing-h1b-visas/387221-3.html

[magellan]

8. This required an extensive STUDY?

Okay, I'm all in favor of empirical evidence gathering...but damn. I don't think this is going to change minds any more than finding out our economic policy is based on a math error.

[Populist_Prole]

9. Sounds like the whole plausible deniability angle has run its course

The corporatists power grab is now complete enough that they no longer need to lie to us by wrapping their labor arbitrage scam in flowery benign language; shortages and such.

They can now say it's just because they want cheap labor because that's just the way a plutocracy is supposed to work. In this manner, "Trust me" has become "Fuck you".

[Initech]

10. Where do we get our pitchforks and torches again?

[Leslie Valley]

12. Walmart lawn and garden dept.

Made in China.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bamboo-And-Seashell-Torches/13030779

[IDemo]

13. Study suggests brilliant round object illuminates Eastern sky each morning n/t

[flying rabbit]

17. I've seen that too!

I think it is orbiting the earth.

[bvar22]

14. Remember when Bill Clinton sold us NAFTA?

[font size=3]"The American Worker can compete with any worker in the World!"[/font]
Remember that?


It would have been more honest to say,
[font size=3]"The American Worker will be FORCED to compete with Slave Labor Countries for their jobs."
Hahahahahahahaha!
Jokes on YOU, Suckers!
Hahahahahahaha![/font]


There is NO such thing as Free Trade
There is NO such thing as Free Markets.
There is NO Giant Invisible Hand.
The RICH made that shit up.

[Dragonfli]

19. I remember! I even remember an Obama proposed solution to Bill's mess that never made

it past the 2008 campaign rhetoric.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2759357

[antigop]

22. Noam Chomsky - Clinton's Vision - December 1, 1993 (free trade, NAFTA)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017111501

[bvar22]

33. Ross Perot's version:

&feature=player_embedded

Ross was RIGHT!
The Democratic party is TRUMPETING the Return of Manufacturing Jobs!!!
The part they aren't telling anyone is that these Returning Manufacturing Jobs are LOW Pay and NO benefits!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
Thanks, Bill and the "Centrist" Democrats!

[RKP5637]

29. Yep, but many Dems don't want to hear anything about that ... It was a huge WTF when Clinton

started down that path.

[Brigid]

15. Quick! I need my smelling salts! And my fainting couch!

I am shocked, I tell you! Just shocked!

[AnnieK401]

16. I'm always amazed at the "revelations" they come up with in these studies.

[DanTex]

18. In other news: bears shit in woods, pope is Catholic.

[DJ13]

21. The Pope shits in the woods, and bears are Catholic?

[librechik]

20. jathink?????

wow. Thank goodness they did a study, cuz dozens of RW douchebags in broadcasting are unaware of that fact.

[Alva Goldbook]

23. This is like saying water is wet. (end)

[ljm2002]

24. So supply and demand doesn't work...

...when there is an external source of cheap labor. Gosh, ya think?

I'm glad they did this study, but geez Louise, why oh why are our policy makers blind to what is so FUCKING OBVIOUS?????

Oh yeah. They BENEFIT from it. As long as the 1% benefits from this, the policy makers will continue to kowtow to them and give them more and more H1B visas, green cards, etc., because you know, "there just aren't enough Americans to do the job".

"The researchers found that the US produces a surfeit of STEM graduates, but only half of them are hired."

[kentuck]

25. Call 60 Mintues!

That is a surprise!

[timdog44]

26. This study.

Was it done by some overseas, outsourced persons?

[MrSlayer]

27. Ray Charles could see that.

And he's dead.

We have to stop allowing these sons of bitches to rip us off at every turn.

[RKP5637]

28. Not to OP, but to the study! DUH!!! What else is new. We knew this years ago. n/t

[LeftInTX]

30. I can only hope our congress critters read this.............

[davidn3600]

32. They needed a study to prove this?

[woo me with science]

34. K&R

[Skittles]

35. file that under "NO SHIT"

I mean, PLEASE

[Hekate]

36. No shit, Sherlock.

Once again, this news is broken in a UK newspaper.

[woo me with science]

37. Such coyness. Let's not jump to conclusions.

[xchrom]

38. Du rec. Nt

[treestar]

39. The actual study

http://www.epi.org/files/2013/bp359-guestworkers-high-skill-labor-market-analysis.pdf

It is by the Economic Policy Institute.