Gates To Senate: "Guaranteed Jobs" For Tech Professionals; 300,000 H-1B Visas Wanted
According to the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates today told U.S. Senators that the country is facing an "acute crisis" in its shortage of engineering professionals and those professionals with the right skills will be guaranteed a good paying job. Excerpts from the article:
Gates declared, "The demand worldwide will guarantee them all jobs. Anyone in the United States, not only will they have a high paying job; they will create many around them. We are increasing our employment."
Gates' rare appearance before the Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee today urged passage of a bill titled "Strengthening American Competitiveness for the 21st Century." The committee only heard testimony from the Microsoft Chairman.
According to Gates, this worker "shortage" is hurting America's ability to compete in the global economy and the solutions primarily involve reforming the H-1B visa program and the U.S. education system to improve math and science curriculum.
The H-1B visa program allows skilled foreign guest workers to enter the country for up to six years to fill spot labor shortages in high skilled areas. Under current law, the program allows for 65,000 new H-1B visa guest workers a year, with some exemptions that can raise that number to 120,000. The program is highly controversial and is one of the biggest divides between labor and management in the technology sector. Labor groups argue that expanding the program creates a labor market where too many workers are competing for too few jobs which will have the effect of depressing salaries for professionals in the field.
From Gate's perspective, the majority of engineering professionals at Microsoft earn six figures a year or more, and he believes this is also true for guest worker employees under the H-1B visa program. For Gates, a $100,000 a year salary for a guest worker computer professional means "we should welcome as many as we can get."
One Senator asked Gates about what is a good number above 65,000 that the Senate should consider. "300,000 would be a fantastic improvement," was his reply.
Despite all of the outsourcing of high-tech jobs overseas the U.S. will still have a strong IT industry said Gates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) cited a figure of 600,000 jobs lost in the high-tech sector.
