Which brings us to the story of Xianmin Shane Zhang, a software engineer in Minnesota. According to his LinkedIn page, Zhang earned his BS in engineering in his native China, one MS in physics at Southern Illinois University, and another in computer science at the University of Houston. His profile next lists a series of IT jobs at US companies. In 2005, 43-year-old Zhang was one of a group of workers over 40 who sued their former employer, Best Buy, for age discrimination, when the company laid them off after outsourcing their jobs. The suit ended in an undisclosed settlement.
After being laid off by Best Buy, Zhang eventually fulfilled the rosy forecast of those advocating increased STEM-worker immigration by becoming an entrepreneur, though hardly following the innovation and jobs-for-Americans script. His Z&Z Information Services in St. Paul helps US companies outsource their IT and programming needs to China. “Giving green cards to foreign students can lead to offshoring as well,” notes Norman Matloff, who uncovered this tale. That’s because young scientists and engineers from abroad get older, and wind up facing the same age discrimination and glutted market as their native-born colleagues. Why isn’t that reported, too?
Everybody has known for years that the worker shortage isn't true but truth and facts are not used by our government when making decisions that destroy thousands and thousands of families across the nation.
#1 Posted by A Cabrera, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 03:07 PM
Congratulations again to Ms. Benderly on another terrific piece that exposes the obvious truth, when most of the press is mesmerized by PR nonsense from the tech giants.
#2 Posted by S. Apfelroth, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 03:15 PM
Thanks for this article. I have worked in IT for nearly 40 years and allthough I'm nearing retirement I keep fighting this guest worker program with my Senator and Congressman. These were good paying jobs that our government is allowing corporations to raid with cheap labor. The guest worker program (H1-B) was designed to bring over from other countries their "best and brightest" but instead we are bringing over below average workers at a discount. There is no shortage we should put our college grad to work before guest workers. Unfortunately my complaints always land on deaf ears.
#3 Posted by Greg Sherman, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 04:04 PM
The key driver for these harmful policies is the economic benefits that accrue to the liberal immigration advocates. A recently-published estimate is that each work visa admission yields a salary and benefit avoidance of about $150,000 over the life of the visa. The key concept is to substitute a young imported worker who labors under a visa system akin to indentured servitude for an experienced American citizen. Often the American is forced to train their imported replacement as a condition for receiving their meager outplacement benefit. Furthermore, the soon-to-be-ex-employer also forces the American to sign a nondisclosure document that they will not inform the media about the employer conduct. Since there have been over 37 million cumulative visa admissions in just five higher-skilled work visa programs between 1975-2010, the economic harms to the American middle class are denominated in the trillions of dollars. To learn more, please search by title for the PDF version of the 2012 report, "How Record Immigration Levels Robbed American High-Tech Workers of $10 Trillion."
While I'm pleased overall with Beryl's expose, she misstates the fate of most experienced Americans once they are displaced from STEM fields by employer's abuse of work visa programs. Most are "extorted into oblivion" and are forced to take work that makes scant use of their training and work experience. The trend is big enough to show up in the 2002 Census bureau ACS Survey data cited in the above article. The result is that for all except the economic elite, for all workers, including Ph.D.s that their peak earning years are between age 40 and age 50. This is significant, as it underscores the historically unprecedented size of the "internal brain drain" that Matloff has discussed in several recent articles and presentations.
The fundamental problem is that the U.S. immigration-induced overpopulation leads to most of the economic benefits being privatized while the huge costs are socialized. Since U.S. citizen professionals are being harmed, they should be calling for an immediate termination of these work visa programs. Free-market advocate and Nobel economics laureate Milton Friedman summed it up well when he was discussing the H-1B Visa program in a 2002 article. He called the visa program a "government subsidy" program as it allowed employers to obtain higher-skilled workers for below-market wages.
#4 Posted by Dr. Gene Nelson, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 04:16 PM
Could someone @ CJR fix the URIs in this article? Several have "www.cjr.org/essay/" infixed, e.g., "http://www.cjr.org/essay/www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators", which fails. The correct URI is obviously "http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators" (which in fact resolves), but less web-aware folks might find the 404s off-putting (or, worse yet, to somehow compromise Benderly's position).
#5 Posted by Tom Roche, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 06:46 PM
The big companies whining about "a dearth of talent" are not just lying, they are WRONG about where their own self-interest lies.
The H-1B crowd are usually dreadfully underqualified, in most shops today they may make up 50% to 95% of the staff, and do 1% to 10% of the work.
Hey journalists, get your face out into the real world, hang out in a real IT shop for a few weeks, IT'S NOT HARD TO SEE.
#6 Posted by JRStern, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 09:01 PM
The push for more stem visas is just another ploy to get cheap labor by the big corperations.
#7 Posted by Rick Ensor, CJR on Wed 1 May 2013 at 10:53 PM
I'm not in the STEM field, so I really appreciate Beryl Benderly's careful marshaling of the facts and avoidance of inflammatory remarks or exaggeration. This article is a valuable contribution toward understanding an issue of major importance for STEM professionals and for our country. Thank you, Ms. Benderly, for an outstanding article.
#8 Posted by GA Goldberg, CJR on Thu 2 May 2013 at 01:37 PM
Hi Tom --
All the links should be fixed now. Thanks for the heads-up!
#9 Posted by Sara Morrison, CJR on Thu 2 May 2013 at 05:35 PM
1 of 2.
“STEM” careers are challenging, -engaging, -valuable to humanity, and vital to America’s strength. However, “the conventional wisdom” regarding our STEM-workforce is flawed. Actually – the USA is “sinking its own boat.”
NPR once aired a story on an MIT-developed suit which acquaints a younger wearer with the physical challenges of an aged body. Q: Why not just walk-across-the-hall and tap the perspective of an OLDER scientist/engineer? A: “Because there are increasingly-fewer of them around.”
Actually –
• America HAS A SUFFICIENT SUPPLY of STEM graduates NOW.
• Corporate USA is consciously FORCING STEM graduates OUT of these fields.
Web searches for the phrases “older engineer” and “unemployed engineer” will reveal informed testimony- and reader comments such as:
• “The United States has arranged to produce more knowledge workers than we can employ, creating a labor-excess economy that keeps labor costs down and productivity high.”
• “One might ask why, in the face of such evidence, we still hear spirited claims that there are too few engineers. …What you are hearing is simply the expressions by interest groups and their lobbyists.”
• “…Companies often create the very shortages they decry by insisting on applicants who meet EVERY item on a detailed list of qualifications.”
• “In some engineering fields, the 40-year level is becoming almost as much a turning point for some engineers as it is for professional athletes. In the software area, it certainly happens at 35 and often lower…”
• “Salary curves as a function of age routinely show salary decline after age 45.”
• “The fastest-growing group of unemployed people is the experienced and educated in the 45-to-54 age range…”
• “One of America's dirty little secrets is that most engineers over 50 are underemployed or long-term unemployed.”
• “No one says they don't want to be operated on by a doctor who is too experienced but an engineer who has too much experience can't get hired…”
• “Why would someone want to become an engineer? Years of brutally tough coursework followed by 60-70 hour workweeks and the constant threat of a layoff? All for the same or less money you could make as a business major, where you drink your way through college and complain about the engineers that work for you.”
• “Seniority and experience seem to count for little, and good work offers no protection...”
And this is just a SAMPLE.
Consider the following:
• Americans would be STUNNED at the number of ex-scientists- & engineers now driving trucks or working at Lowe's & Radio Shack.
• We’re now at a point where many of our best-&-brightest can be SHOT-AT (in the military) for a longer term than they can employ their brains/creativity in designing our WEAPONS…
• This isn’t just about “supply-&-demand;” it’s a NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE. We haven’t prevailed in military conflicts solely due to the number (or caliber) of our troops; we’ve also benefitted GREATLY from having “better toys.”
• Q: If a foreign aggressor successfully mounts our shores because our tech lags behind, will it matter that we’ve become a nation of investment bankers?
• “Strong backs” don’t design “smart”-bombs; strong MINDS do. The contributions of Scientists & Engineers facilitate America’s safety- & standard-of-living – yet U.S. companies now routinely overwork-, underpay-, demoralize-, and discard many of our best minds (…at the peak of their powers…) at a time when competition has never been more fierce nor the stakes higher.
• Rest Assured: If someone is truly interested in a STEM field, s/he WILL love it – as long as the individual doesn’t expect a STEM career to be the lucrative-, trouble-free “vehicle-to-retirement” of yore. Today’s STEM grads must (a.) “raise the periscope” at age 35 and
#10 Posted by Kenneth Davis, CJR on Thu 2 May 2013 at 07:09 PM
2 of 2.
Lastly –
(1) a comment to an article entitled “Why Students Are Leaving Engineering” –
“You know what? [Everytime] I cross a bridge, ride an elevator, or fail to be crushed by a collapsing building, I'm thankful that engineering schools work the living crap out of engineers. Engineering is too important to be easy. The right way to get more engineers into circulation would be better pay -- it's basic supply and demand. When demand exceeds supply, prices must go up. It's funny how corporations love economics right up until the point where it involves paying intelligent people higher wages.”
and --
(2) how “Crash54” (a respondent to a recent web article entitled “Do Layoffs Target Older Workers?”) describes himself:
“Graduate degree in EE, Summa Cum Laude from undergraduate institution, 58 years old and now changing oil and tires at an auto shop for 1/5th what I used to make. I've got a job, but it feels like such a waste.”
The impact of age discrimination (and other “MBA-proffered lunacy”) on our technical workforce is truly hobbling the Republic. Sadly, "wisdom" is no longer held in high esteem – just how “the bottom line" looks for the next Quarterly Report. (Think About It: Many who DIDN'T necessarily apply themselves in school are now (a.) running companies and (b.) systematically-discarding those who DID. Now THAT's a prescription for the long-term survival of a NATION...) This country’s love-affair with “cheap labor” is going to be its downfall – and Corporate America needs to own-up to the problem it has created (and continues to stoke). The H-1B visa is one of Coprorate America's favorite "Weapons of Mass Dismissal." Tragically, I cannot in-good-conscience encourage a young person to pursue a STEM-career. PLEASE find-out the truth about America’s STEM situation – otherwise, our grandchildren will face a MUCH bigger problem than “excessive debt.”
From a Long-Term-Unemployed-, 52-Year-Old-, STEM-Degree-Holder.
#11 Posted by Kenneth Davis, CJR on Thu 2 May 2013 at 07:17 PM
NOTE: Though my posts DID meet the 4,000-character-limit, the following got chopped from my initial comment:
...“raise the periscope” at age 35 and (b.) devise- and be ready to execute a “Plan B” by age 40. Unfortunately, they will have no choice.
• Greed is achieving what NO foreign force could – the systematic destruction of U.S.-based STEM superiority.
#12 Posted by Kenneth Davis, CJR on Thu 2 May 2013 at 07:26 PM
Fellow Americans, a majority of our engineers beyond their mid-40s are now either unemployed or underemployed. Half of our nation's graduates with STEM degrees are unable to find work in STEM fields. Yet 30-50% of all new IT jobs go to foreigners on temporary US work visas.
These FACTS are well-known in corporate boardrooms. But cheap labor has been a boon to their profits (at a six decade high# and massively profitable to foreign interests #the top ten users are off-source outsourcing companies and six headquartered in India).
But these are NOT the best interests of our nation or citizens.
Tens of thousands have written their representatives, many have testified and every unbiased study PROVEN that corporate claims of "skilled labor shortage" are a LIE. And that there is indeed an abundance of Americans with every bit of smarts, skills, and education to fill any and all job openings -- past, present and future.
Yet our voices are NOT HEARD – and our representatives mysteriously deaf. And rather than ABOLISH this damaging, ill-considered and highly corrupt policy, Congress now proposes MASSIVE expansion.
Our Declaration of Independence states clearly “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
And that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”
I submit the time has come. I submit we no longer have a government that represents the best interests of our nation and citizens. Rather one that is captive and responsive only to corporate, financial and foreign interests. And that it is time for an earnest dialogue on how best it should be replaced.
And for those hiding behind walls and private security while opposing the interests of this nation and citizens, I would only remind you these are the minds that armed the strongest military in the world and created nuclear weapons. You are naked -- and have nowhere to hide.
#13 Posted by NoGig, CJR on Mon 13 May 2013 at 01:36 PM
The other terrible trend that is crippling academic STEM at our universities (particularly the non-flagship state schools) is cronyism. and i will be specific: cronyism due to the non-assimilation of Chinese-born faculty. There is even a term for this important concept in Chinese culture: guanxi.
Many of these Chinese faculty are great scientists, but somebody frankly needs to point out to them that guanxi is not appropriate in America. If they want guanxi, they should "self-deport", Romney-style....
it used to be that in a field such as physics there would be conflicts between the subdisciplines in a department (say higher energy physicists vs. condensed matter)... Now it is common to see Chinese-born scientists invoking guanxi across these tradiational boundaries to help each other out. Guanxi also extends to both NIH and NSF review panels where it is making significant inroads into the traditional old boys network. Not a good time for STEM in America... I can't say if I would encourage my young daughters to pursue Science or Mathematics as a future career.... same with Law & Medicine.....i think an engineering discipline where creativity and originality are valued will be a bastion against guanxi. and might be worth doing..
#14 Posted by Mateo Luiz, CJR on Fri 7 Jun 2013 at 12:35 AM
As an unemployed PhD in EE for 2 years from a top 15 school, I can tell you their is no shortage of STEM graduates. 10 years ago, foreign PhD went to university as post-docs (40-50K/year) do to job security. The tech companies figure that out and started to prefer to hire foreign workers and now American born STEM PhD's are killing time in academia with no professorships opening up. The one interview I had, they were overly concerned with what kind of debt I was in (I had now). As the interviewer explained, if he wad to work me too hard (i know they work 70+ hours a week), I could quit. If I was in financial debt or a foreign born (requiring a green card to stay in the US), I would be desperate and unable to quit. That is the problem. Now they are trying to flood the market with more foreign PhD to further drive down the cost. Its BS.
#15 Posted by Sam, CJR on Tue 9 Jul 2013 at 12:15 AM
This is one of the few articles I've found in any media, much less the corporate media, telling the truth about how ostensibly American companies use cheap immigrant employees to end run their fellow Americans. The idea that this country of 330 million people, with the greatest universities in the worls, is unable to produce enough qualified STEM workers is laughable on its face. The only reason this ridiculous and insulting argument gains any traction is that our politicians have been legally bribed. None are so blind as those whose continuation in office depends on not seeing the obvious.
#16 Posted by EJS, CJR on Thu 18 Jul 2013 at 10:32 AM
I am an early middle-aged, "obsolete", "unemployable", American programmer - and agree with this article.
#17 Posted by swampwiz, CJR on Sat 27 Jul 2013 at 06:21 PM
Wow. This article is amazing. And to think I was believing what Forbes, NYT and other BS corporate media were saying while beginning to plan my career. Thank you CJR. Brilliant article. This is investigative & productive journalism!!
#18 Posted by DAVEcrockett, CJR on Sun 28 Jul 2013 at 03:06 AM