The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Inc.-USA
IEEE-USA
_______________________________________________________________
Contact: Chris Currie mailto:c.currie@ieee.org, 202-785-0017
IEEE-USA Requests Legislative Action at URL
http://congress.nw.dc.us/ieee/
HIGH-TECH LAYOFF, UNEMPLOYMENT RATES MULTIPLY AS CONGRESS VOTES ON H-1B
INCREASE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 1998 -- Data released this week reveal a vulnerable
and underutilized U.S. high-tech workforce -- even as Congress considers
a dramatic expansion of the H-1B high-tech guestworker program that would
leave nearly all U.S. technical workers subject to legal displacement,
charged IEEE-USA on the eve of final Congressional action on H-1B visa
legislation.
IEEE-USA cited new statistics showing that high-technology industries in
1998 have cut four times as many jobs nationally as last year, creating
more layoffs than almost every other sector of the economy, according to
Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an international outplacement firm. The
electronics, computer and telecommunications industries alone logged
143,000 layoffs and constituted three of the top five industries in total
1998 job-cut announcements.
In addition, third-quarter data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
released today reveals that electrical-engineering unemployment jumped to
3.4 percent -- more than an eight-fold increase since the beginning of
1998 and the highest rate since the record-high levels of 1994.
Moreover, a new National Science Foundation report found that nearly 50
percent more U.S. high-technology degree holders are working outside of
their fields than the total number of professionals in the U.S. technical
workforce.
"Congress is fiddling with an H-1B visa hike while our high-tech
workforce burns," stated IEEE-USA President-Elect Paul J. Kostek. "It's
bizarre policy to give the industries laying off the most U.S. workers
special access to an expanded foreign guest-worker program -- while
millions of trained U.S. technical professionals toil outside their
chosen fields."
"But the most damaging aspect of this bill is that it strips away layoff
protections from the U.S. workers who will become vulnerable to
displacement by low-cost H-1B workers in a newly glutted labor market,"
added Kostek. "This legislation was clearly bought by industry leaders
and paid for with campaign contributions; Congress should stamp it,
'Return to Sender.'"
Action in the Senate on the bill passed in the House on Sept. 24 was
delayed when it was discovered that the language voted on did not include
all provisions in the hastily brokered Sept. 22 agreement on H-1B
legislation between the White House and Congressional leaders. The Senate
is now expected to vote on a "corrected" version of the bill today,
which, if passed, will be brought to another House vote under suspension
of rules. Under suspension of rules, the bill will require two-thirds
approval for passage.
IEEE-USA's Kostek added: "The current version of the bill
eviscerates worker safeguards contained in the original House bill that
was approved by the Judiciary Committee in a bipartisan 23-4
vote." Those safeguards -- which would have prevented all
U.S. employers from displacing U.S. employees in order to hire H-1B
workers and required them to recruit first in the United States -- now
would cover only so-called"dependent employers," a
tiny fraction of the overall high-tech sector.
According to data released Oct. 6 by the National Science Foundation, the
science and engineering (S&E) workforce reached nearly 3.2 million in
1995; at the same time,
however, about 4.7 million people whose highest degrees were in S&E
fields were working in non-S&E occupations. Most of the latter were
working in sales and marketing, management and administration, and
non-S&E-related teaching. "It's absurd to contemplate approving 150,000
additional guestworkers while legions of displaced U.S. engineers are
working as computer salesmen and tech-support staff," said Kostek.
Kostek cited the case of Bard-Alan Finlan, a 43-year-old Californian with
a 1992 bachelor's degree in computer engineering, as an example of the
human cost of expanding the H-1B program. Finlan and several
departmental colleagues were laid off from their jobs at a major
technology corporation last week while the company applied for two H-1B
visas in the same department.
"Here's a bright guy who's gotten himself retrained in the latest
technology -- and now he's being left behind in the stampede to sign up
low-cost, indentured guest-workers," stated Kostek. "Is this the way to
develop the high-tech workforce we need to stay competitive after the
guest-workers have gone home?"
Earlier, on Sept. 23, IEEE-USA announced data that showed usage of the
high-tech permanent immigration system has declined 20 percent in the
past five years as guest-worker admissions have increased more than 80
percent. And on Sept. 17, IEEE-USA released a Harris poll that found
fully 82 percent of Americans opposed to an expansion of the H-1B
program.
IEEE-USA promotes the careers and public-policy interests of the 220,000
U.S. members of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Inc., the world's largest technical professional society.
# # #
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For an interview with Paul Kostek, please contact
Chris Currie at 202-785-0017, ext. 342, 301-887-1901 (h), or
c.currie@ieee.org.
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, D.C. 20036-5104
Tel: 202-785-0017
Fax: 202-785-0835
NewsLine: 202-785-2180
http://www.ieeeusa.org
Pender M. McCarter, APR, Fellow PRSA
Associate Communications Director
p.mccarter@ieee.org