News Release
Contact: Chris McManes
Senior Public Relations Coordinator
Phone: + 1 202 785 0017, ext. 8356
E-Mail:
c.mcmanes@ieee.org
U.S. High-Tech
Unemployment Shrinks
Since H-1B Cap Lowered to 65,000
WASHINGTON (19 November 2004)
— The number of unemployed U.S. high-tech professionals
dropped sharply from the first quarter of 2004 to the third quarter. The
decline mirrors the reinstatement of the H-1B visa cap to its historical
level of 65,000 in Fiscal Year 2004 from 195,000 in FY 03.
"Although a number of factors are affecting
high-tech employment, including an improving
economy and the migration of engineers out of
the technical workforce, statistics indicate
that U.S. professionals have benefited from a
reduction in H-1B visas," IEEE-USA President
John Steadman said. "Because U.S. industry has
been more restricted in its ability to bring
overseas guest workers into the country, it has
had to hire more U.S. citizens to fill open
positions. This is good news for U.S. technical
professionals."
The number of unemployed high-tech workers has
fallen by a total of 92,000 in nine major
high-tech job classifications tracked by the
Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) in the third quarter of 2004 vs. the first
quarter.
|
Job Classification |
1st Quarter |
3rd Quarter |
Change |
|
Computer Programmers |
62,000 |
25,000 |
-37,000 |
|
Computer Scientists and System Analysts |
48,000 |
17,000 |
-31,000 |
|
Network Systems & Data Com. Analysts |
23,000 |
11,000 |
-12,000 |
|
Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
16,000 |
7,000 |
-9,000 |
|
Computer Hardware Engineers |
4,000 |
1,000 |
-3,000 |
|
Network & Computer Systems
Administrators |
7,000 |
5,000 |
-2,000 |
|
Computer Software Engineers |
29,000 |
29,000 |
0 |
|
Database Administrators |
3,000 |
3,000 |
0 |
|
Computer Support Specialists |
16,000 |
18,000 |
+2,000 |
|
Total |
208,000 |
116,000 |
-92,000 |
Despite these gains, 116,000 people remained out
of work in those nine career areas in the third
quarter. U.S. industry and its lobbyists have
been clamoring recently to grant an immediate
H-1B cap exemption of 20,000 for foreign-born
students who've earned advanced degrees in the
United States.
"Plenty of U.S. citizens are still available for
U.S. companies to hire," IEEE-USA's Steadman
said. "So, as pleased as we are to see more U.S.
technical professionals back to work, we still
have thousands on the unemployment rolls. Until
we can put more of them back to work, there's
really no reason to add another exemption to the
H-1B cap."
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE.
It was created in 1973 to advance the public
good and promote the careers and public-policy
interests of the more than 225,000 technology
professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE.
The IEEE is the world's largest technical
professional society. For more information, go
to
www.ieeeusa.org.
# # #
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, DC 20036-5104
Phone: 202-785-0017, Fax: 202-785-0835
Last Update:
15 May 2007
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter,
p.mccarter@ieee.org
|
