ITAA says that minorities not affected by outsourcing or NIVs

Date: Friday, August 15, 2003 2:20 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

This article must have been paid for by Harris Miller, president of the
ITAA. He said that he has seen no data linking offshoring and
outsourcing and the dismal state of minority hiring in IT. Miller's
statement went unchallenged. Surely the editorialist could have found
somebody with this data if she tried.

John Templeton or Tony Brown could easily dispute Miller's claimed
blindness, and Tony Brown has a radio talk show in her area. See this
web page:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Library/Archives/TonyBrown.htm

If there are minorities that disagree with Miller's analysis, contact
the journalist:
Sandra Guy's phone email address is:
sguy@suntimes.com

But better than that, write a letter to the editor at:

letters@suntimes.com or
http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html

http://www.suntimes.com/output/zinescene/cst-fin-ecol13.html

Percentage of minorities in tech lower than in other fields

August 13, 2003

BY SANDRA GUY SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Mell Monroe was hardly surprised when IBM recently announced it would
speed up its plan to move white-collar information technology jobs
overseas.

Monroe, 48, built a profitable business by recruiting experienced IT
salespeople for jobs at computer software and hardware giants,
including IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

Most of his business, which he runs from his Bronzeville home office,
focuses on enticing African-American and Latino professionals to move
to a rival IT company.

He has watched the need for his expertise dwindle. Last year, Monroe
submitted 63 names of job candidates to a major client he declined to
name. The client hired three.

Monroe said he has placed nearly 300 African-American sales
professionals in IT jobs during his 12 years in the recruiting
business.

The drop-off started when the dot-com bubble burst in late 1999 and
companies ceased asking for minority candidates.

"Affirmative action is not as common or as prevalent in the technology
industry," he said. "The African-American sales professional or
tech-support specialist (are first) when it comes to being laid off."

Numbers bear him out.

A newly released study issued by the Coalition for Fair Employment in
Silicon Valley, a group of black executives, found that nine high-tech
fields employed 211,000 black workers out of 3.8 million, or 5.5
percent, compared with the general African-American labor force
percentage of 10.6 percent.

The coalition noted that other information-based, technology-driven
industries, such as telecommunications and radio and television
broadcasting, employ far higher percentages of blacks--13.9 percent and
15.4 percent, respectively.

A study by the Information Technology Association of America found that
the percentages of minorities and women in the IT work force fell
between 1996 and 2002. The study was based on data from the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics.

There is a bright spot, however. African Americans increasingly own
their own technology companies, according to the report, the fourth in
a series titled "Silicon Ceiling 4." The coalition counted 2,400
black-owned tech firms this year.

The report touches on one of the biggest controversies in IT--companies
that hire skilled foreigners, who work in the United States under
temporary visas. Critics allege the companies exploit the workers by
sponsoring them for green cards--a process that can take years. If the
workers complain, the companies can deport them.

The companies, many represented by the ITAA, argue that consumers
benefit from being able to buy less-costly goods and that the
offshoring is necessary for them to remain profitable.

ITAA president Harris Miller said he has seen no data linking
offshoring and outsourcing and the dismal state of minority hiring in
IT.

"We need to do a better job of training and retooling U.S. workers'
skills so we can continue to have the world's best work force," said
Miller, who supports offshoring and outsourcing as a way for companies
to grow.

Experts differ about which is the greater worry--importing foreign
workers or offshoring IT jobs to low-wage countries such as India and
China.

"There is a huge effort in this country by employers to respond to
competition by driving down wages," said Eileen Appelbaum, director of
the Center for Labor and Work at Rutgers University.

"We are importing the services of engineers, call center workers and
computer programmers. It increases our imports and makes our trade
deficit worse," she said. "I think this is the single biggest threat to
the U.S. economy today."

Support this Newsletter and ZaZona.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe send an email to

Rob Sanchez is board member of NAEA - www.NAEA.US

Back to archives