In one recent instance, an engineering student I know couldn't find a job after finishing his B.S., so he stayed in school long enough to finish an MBA and immediately got a great job. Students notice these things.

Gee, you mean MS was lying about not being able to find enough highly qualified IT labor (dirt cheap). In reality this is the fox in the hen house. MS benefits from worry over the job market FUD. It scares away US citizens who can then be replaced by cheap foreign labor. The real story is that businesses have figured out a way to save money. Scare off "expensive" US citizens so you can hire cheap foreign labor. A better way to save money would be to cut senior leaders pay. Duh!

This report is so fantastically rediculous -- I'm not even sure where to start.

Unless you have been living under a rock (or under in the serene safety of a university or think tank) you know that there is a massive gap between US demand for skilled engineering resourcse and domestic supply. Have these authors ever actually tried to actually recruit engineers for a commercial endeavor? I would like to know if the authors called on any HR departments or hiring managers of companies to ask people that actually understand the market what their opinion is.

Probably not. So here is the opinion of one such person: At least 90% of applications that apply for a tech job (in software) are here on an H1-B visa. These jobs range from $90K to $115K year plus very nice benefits. Companies would love to employ US citizens, but alas there are none to be found.

If not for the H1-B program you would see massive inflation of product costs because of labor inflation and companies moving entire divisions offshore (faster than they already are) not just because of cost savings but because it is the only place they can find enough talent.

Perhaps the most rediculous statement in the report is that "U.S. high school students test as well as or better than students two decades ago". Very true. Our quality has stayed almost exactly the same. Unfortunately the rest of the world is accelerating and a blistering pace. Internationally US students ranked around 5th math and science 20 years ago, now we rank somewhere between 18th and 56th (depending on which reports you believe) behind econmic power houses like the Ukraine, Poland and Muldova. Even the most conservative research shows the US to be barely mediocre from a global perspective. Check out the National Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov) for yourself.

Charlie, I can't argue with your experience but mine, as an IT worker, has been very different and I would like to understand discrepancy. It may be regional, or the difference between experienced workers and entry level, or maybe specific skill sets, but it just is not my experience.

Novell's plan to shed workers is more typical, and if this is a typical episode many of those folks will take lower paying jobs either in IT or in different fields. It is very difficult to train a student in IT and the washout rate is about 75%, and then they're treated like a commodity. It's discouraging.

Charlie, I don't know what kind of engineering job you're trying to recruit for, but as a 35-year career software developer, here's what I deal with every day:
1. Executives and bean counters will not hire an American for $90K to $115K when they can get 'the exact same thing' in an H1-B visa holder for $60K.
2. They will also not hire an American with many years of experience for $90K when they can get 'the exact same thing' in a student fresh out of school for $45K. An added benefit is that younger workers need to prove themselves and have fewer concerns about work/life/family balance, so they can be worked 60, 70, or 80 hours per week. The code they crank out is beginners' code, but to an MBA who knows jack about tech, one line of code is 'the exact same thing' as a line of code written by someone who knows to avoid the dozens of mistakes that they've personally made in their long career. Also, younger workers are actually surprised the first three or four times they are laid off. I sure was.
3. At least give H1-B visa holders credit for wanting to improve their lives and careers. They're enthusiastic about finding jobs because if they don't stay employed, they're on the next plane back to Bangalore.
4. American students see IT workers getting used up on tedious, stupid, and just plain doomed tasks - then tossed aside - and they quite logically decide on other careers. It's not the students' fault; it's the morons at the top who drive working conditions and satisfaction into the cellar.
5. American executives whine about the lack of American talent, but they're really the ones who drive Americans away so they can get the commodity known as 'worker' cheaper. Software quality is getting poorer and poorer, and will eventually crash altogether - but they don't teach about software quality in MBA school.

The National Center for Education Statistics has a vested interest in generating alarm that the USA is 'falling behind' the rest of the world educationally, because they get more tax money and power for government schools - and themselves - to the degree they're successful. Who keeps cranking out statistics saying the USA is 'falling behind' the rest of the world in broadband access? The people in government who want to blanket every rural hill and hollow with taxpayer-financed Wi-Fi. There's a pattern there, if you're willing to look at it.

The literacy rate in the USA was 90% before the first government school was built, and has been trending down ever since Horace Mann and John Dewey went to Prussia to learn how children can be taught to be compliant and unimaginative. Private schools graduate smarter students for up to 75% less because the students are motivated, not forced, to be there. Centrally-controlled, bureaucratic schools with forced attendance are the problem, and pouring more money into them will just make them worse. The highest per-pupil spending in the USA seems to create the most worthless and corrupt school districts, e.g. Washington DC, Detroit, and New Orleans.

An IT degree, whether from a public or a private school, is only good for getting your first job anyway; then you start to learn what you _really_ need to know. I went into software development because I liked it, and there were no degree programs back in the Middle Ages.

I've been an IT programmer for over 30 years and until the dot com bust it was common for recruters to call me at least once a month. Since then I've been lucky to find anything in IT I could do to make money. I've even had to go to other city's and leave my family to find work. If there is a shortage of workers, I havn't seen it. There are a very few skills that are in short supply but, not enough to justifing saying that there is an IT shortage. I never thought that my job could be out-sourced to another country.

Charlie says 'Perhaps the most rediculous statement in the report is that "U.S. high school students test as well as or better than students two decades ago". Very true.' So it's "rediculous" but true, huh? Actually, I wouldn't expect a HR person who can't spell to be very effective at hiring anyone other than those with a lesser education.

Ditto on enydonae's && Bob comments. I have 25 years IT experience in mostly C++ and Java. I was just interviewed by a major CDMA standards provider, by 5 engineers all from places like India, China, France and only one had family here. This whole H1-B thing is a complete hoax in my opinion, it is just a means to pay less. Wages in one part of my business have dropped by 30% to 40% since 2001. The sad part it that we now have presidential hopefuls doing a mimic act of the MS stance.

Shortage? What shortage? There are plenty of people with great skills out there. I've been interviewing people for over a year and can't get anyone to take the job I have available. Seems the company won't pay for skilled people. Everyone I'm interviewing wants a wage based on their experience and their educational level.My company wants to pay 10-20K less than the market rate. AND why does our HR personnel get more respect and make more money than my folks do and yet they do not have the educational levels or horrid working conditions we have? They apparently are more valuable. Why not import people from "somewhere else" to fill their jobs. Or how about those high priced managers we have around here; can't we get some imports to take their place for alot less money.

I have found out that my skills are much in demand so I've started looking. I have had a few offers that are 20K more than I'm making now but the IT people working there are treated worse than the janitor. I get that here for less money. Can someone point me to a position where IT people are treated at least as well as the secretaries? And people wonder why I don't recommend IT as a career. BTW, I have an MBA and 15 years of experience in IT so I do know jack about IT

With respect to US students testing lower than other countries, it is my understanding we tend to test all of our students where many other countries tend to test those tracked to science and math. But I would add that in state I live in and others with reform math programs such as . everyday math that stress group work, breadth over depth and writing how I got the answer as more important than getting the right answer hasn't helped in my opinion.

If I had a dollar for every mess I've had to clean up because management hired inexperienced developers, I'd be rich. Top talent = Top Work. As a systems designer, if I can get talented engineers it means about 50% less design work, because the talented engineers can fill in the gaps. With inexperienced resources, it's double the design work and 3-4 times as many things to fix later in the testing cycles. Every where I've been, the gap isn't that talent isn't available, but that management is trying to do things on the 'cheap' when in the end they pay more because the really expensive resources (management & systems designers/architects) have all their time burned up micro-managing inexperienced resources. I can do more with 1 talented & experienced engineer/developer than with 5-6 of the resources often being hired from overseas or just out of school. If they can do 5-6 times as much work, then surely they are worth 2-3 times the salary. That's an easy cost-benefit equation.

In my part of the IT field (Systems Security), the only options are low pay or Govt. work, since a lot of what I do can't be done by foreigners. I've got job offers from others, but always at a wage to compete with Kumar form India or Boris from Russia.

If I don't work for the Feds, I have to find small businesses to work for, since they can't get the foreigners as easily. One small business I was with DID go thru the H1B process because a Russian would work for $15/hr, but the American (who was one of the fastest and best coders I ever saw) wanted $125/hr (consulting). Since he could write error free code at a rate about 5x the Russians sloppy code, I thought he was the better deal, but the boss thought he'd get better.

Give us decent wages, and we'll give you better performance that the H1B folks, and keep all the cash in the US to spend on your softwaare, instead of shipping it overseas.

The comments about management's lack of appreciation for IT are quite right. In my 25 years on the job, I found that software developers are considered to be some sort of glorified clerk. Management is simply appalled by paying these "clerks" the big dough they now command in the market. Therefore there must be a "shortage" driving these salaries to unjustified levels.

One reason, I've noticed for HR not finding appropriate IT candidates is the ludicrous practice of resume' acronym matching. Rather than look for a breadth of engineering experience, which indicates the ability to absorb new technologies quickly, HR just looks for the right buzzwords.

We need to give these guys a bunch more money, and about three other teams at various institutions around the country, and verify this. I am so tired of hearing about how bad things are. The whole impetus for the "No Child LEft Behind", or as we call it, No Child Leaves Better, is how poorly we are training our children. Now it appears that maybe we aren't dooing such a bad job after all.

The assumption that just because a graduate has a degree in science and engineering means the graduate is qualified to do something useful is ludicrous. There is a huge disconnect between what the market needs and what our colleges are delivering. Most candidates that I see are simply not qualified to do anything but supervised code-monkey work. They typically have poor communication skills and insufficient problem solving skills. Who needs that? I'd rather do the work myself than hold someone's hand.

Just a little logic will tell you what the H1B program does.

The law of supply and demand applies to labor.

When supply increases or demand decreases the price of a commodity(like labor) goes down. Producers make less, supply decreases and the price reaches a balance. It's a nice feedback system that works well, It's called Capitalism and Free trade.

When Government interferes in the Free market that is socialism or Communism.

The Cheap visa indentured servants who lack the rights of Americans to change jobs, join unions, negotiate salaries, and who are baited with the Carrot of U.S. citizenship and the favorable exchange rate.

More Visas = greater supply of engineers= lower wages = less Americans entering field = lobbying for more cheap labor H1B's.....

Less visas = increased wages for engineers = Americans entering field = Less visas needed.

The companies who whine about the lack of engineers are the same ones who glorify free trade with country's that have lower standards of living, and few if any enforced labor or environmental laws.

If you can't hire a qualified worker for the salary you offer, raise it. If your MBA's are making more than your engineers ask yourself WHY?

There are over 300 million people in America, if your HR people can't hire one programmer, fire them! They are obviously unqualified to hire programmers.

Most, yes Most, of the best people I have worked with in my 25+ year IT/engineering career have left the field for better pay/hours/working conditions/respect.
The next time I'm called a "Geek" or a "Nerd" I'm calling a Lawyer! As these words are just the same to me as N***** or other racial sexist comments.

This whole "IT talent shortage" is a crock. It's cooked up my Microsoft and other large firms so they can find cheap labor.

IT talent is not scarce. IT talent willing to work for $15 an hour is scarce.

I find it appalling that this farce is propagated through the media. I am actually unhappy ay my current position and am looking at new positions and the pay some of these places want for the skills and experince they are looking for? Employers are being cheap. My company is prime example. A certain group gets market adjustments and like 9% raises, IT gets no market adjustment anything and a 2% raise and told to be happy. This goes along with the supply/demand comment above. If the supply was that tight and demand was that high, we should be seeing wage increases. These simple economic rules work for milk and gasoline, why not labor?

Also, I am sure we all have see then youtube video about the group of lawyers having a seminar to teach companies how to NOT HIRE US people and how to find the loopholes in the laws to get cheap labor.

My firm is a perfect example. First, I do not like to be referred to as "human capital" I am sure our CEO or his mistress are not classified as human capital. I think who ever came up with this lame new-speak term is "human waste".

Second, we have program in place to hire overseas people instead of US citizens as they are 1/4th the price. We are a very large firm and have our own offices over there and can avoid the whole H1-B visa thing. I have seen written documentation at my company that a couple of IT groups are trying to achieve cost savings by attrition. As people here get fed up and leave, overseas people are hired instead. It's win-win for the company. No need to pay severance to someone who quits. None of that pesky bad press you get from announcing layoffs. The company gets to shaft the american worker once again and the cost savings goes to prop up the CEO's stock options.

And if this crap is happening ay my firm, it's happening at other firms like mine and yours.

As the saying goes....... "Don't believe the Hype"

OH.. PS. Which democrat or republican or other political scumbag is going to help us IT folks here? Hillary? Obama? McCain? I'll tell ya, none of them.

The article at this link, which some people reading this have probably seen, is pretty relevant: http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=205601556.
Basically, it makes the point that companies are using H1-B visas not to hire workers for operations in the United States, but to rotate workers from their foreign operations into the U.S. for the transfer of knowledge, after which they return to wherever they came from and the company then rotates a new cohort into the U.S. ops. Their use of H1-B visas, and their claims for the need for more such visas, serves the interest of accelerating the export of American jobs. To say that they need to bring workers into the U.S. from overseas due to a shortage of workers demonstrates that they are, to put it politely, truth-challenged.