NFAP - every H-1B creates 7 jobs for Americans
NFAP - every H-1B creates 7 jobs for Americans
Date: Monday, March 10, 2008 8:31 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1832 -- 3/10/2008 >>>>>
The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) just came out with the most
nonsensical study of the week. I'm qualifying that because it is the first day
of the week, and it's possible that we will see avalanches of stupider stuff
leading up to the Bill Gates visit to Washington DC.
The NFAP is a front organization for Stuart Anderson, who has been in the
business of promoting H-1B ever since he left the Immigration and
Naturalization Service in 2003. Stuie is just another sordid example of the
corrupting influence of the revolving door in Washington DC.
So here is Stuart Anderson's latest fastball -- see if you can catch it:
According to the NFAP, for each H-1B position requested in labor condition
applications at least 7.5 additional workers were hired. A mere application
for an H-1B creates jobs for Americans, according to the NFAP. Just like
Midas, anything that an H-1B touches turns to gold!
The most obvious flaw with Stuart Anderson's study is that he never said what
types of additional job positions were created, and never makes a correlation
between new positions created and the hiring of an H-1B.
Anybody the company incidentally hires could be used to pump up and distort
the bogus statistic -- which means that jobs that might be included would be
ones like janitors, construction crews, errand boys, security guards, or any
other type of worker.
If you believe the NFAP study, and you can bet most of the mainstream media
will, every time a company hires an H-1B there are many times more Americans
that get put on the payroll. The luminaries that authored this study, such as
economist Jagdish Bhagwati, seem to think that the H-1B program creates more
jobs than it destroys. Actually it would be more valid to conclude that
companies hire more janitors and security guards than H-1B visa holders --
which is not exactly a revelation.
If H-1B creates jobs as the NFAP claims, then that means every time an H-1B is
hired the unemployment rate should go down because at least seven job seekers
get hired. I enjoyed the fuzzy math from the last newsletter so much I decided
to do some simple math to calculate how many H-1Bs are needed to solve our
nation's unemployment problem.
According the the BLS, there are 7.4 million unemployed people in the U.S.
Keep in mind that the number of jobless people is far higher but since the BLS
doesn't accurately track the number of people who are jobless, let's use total
unemployed for the sake of argument.
You can see the recent unemployment stats here:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
Assuming that every H-1B creates 5 jobs for Americans (conservative estimate),
we need to allow about 1.5 million more H-1Bs to come to the U.S. to drive
unemployment down to zero. In the month of February, employers cut 63,000
jobs, which means we would have had to issue 12,600 H-1B visas just to break
even for this month. Does anybody actually believe that 12,000 H-1Bs a month
would solve unemployment problems?
The NFAP doesn't stop with that tomfoolery -- they say that US high-tech
companies have on average 470 job openings because, as they say, there just
aren't enough talented Americans:
A key problem America faces is the long-term stagnation in U.S. skill
level and the legislative inertia that hasprevented liberalizing U.S.
immigration laws to permit the entry and retention of talented people
from around the world.
The NFAP claims that there are more than 140,000 total job openings for
skilled positions available, so if you have skills and need a job, go to this
page to see where the jobs are. Be sure to let me know if any of these
companies hire you.
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/080311talentsrc.pdf
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902716
U.S. Tech Companies Add Five Workers For Each H-1B Visa They Seek
A report says large tech companies with more than 5,000 employers added an
average of five workers for every H-1B position requested; smaller companies
added 7.5 workers.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek March 10, 2008
URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902716
For each H-1b visa position requested, U.S. technology companies increase
their employment by an average of five workers, says a new report released
today by the National Foundation of American Policy, a research organization.
The NFAP examined all H-1B Labor Condition Applications, or LCA filings, to
the U.S. Dept. of Labor from 2001 to 2005 by Standards & Poor's 500 technology
companies. The NFAP report says researchers used "a regression model that
controls for both general market conditions and firm size" in analyzing the
association between number of positions required in H-1B LCA documents and the
percentage of total employment.
Through this analysis, NFAP determined that S&P 500 technology companies with
more than 5,000 employers added an average of five workers for every H-1B
position requested. For companies with fewer than 5,000 employees, the average
increase in employment was 7.5 workers for each H-1B position requested.
The S&P 500, which consists of mostly American companies, currently features
about 76 technology companies.
The NFAP's report findings dispute a common argument by critics of the H-1B
visa program who assert that the hiring of foreign technology professionals
reduce employment opportunities for American workers.
"At the minimum, this shows that H-1Bs are complementary to other U.S.
workers being hired, not displacing them," said Stuart Anderson, executive
director of NFAP in an interview with InformationWeek.
Stuart, a former staff director of the Senate Immigration subcommittee, says
NFAP, is "a non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization
that's independently funded by foundations and private contributors, and does
not lobby for legislation."
The LCAs filings examined by NFAP are documents that companies file to the
Dept. of Labor to specify details such as job location and pay that an
employer plans to provide for a position they'd like to fill by an H-1B
worker. The LCAs are "supporting evidence" employers provide to the U.S.
Dept. of Labor before the company can apply for H-1B visa workers. LCAs need
to be certified by the DoL before the employer can petition the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services for an H-1B visa.
However, the NFAP research did not examine the types of job positions that S&P
companies added to their employment, or the pay for those positions.
Anderson said the research did not conclude that companies added to their
employment because they were saving money by hiring H-1B workers. In fact, he
said an opposite argument may be true.
"We did not see increases in H-1B hiring by companies when they faced harder
times and needed to reduce their payrolls," he says.
On April 1, the U.S. government begins accepting H-1B visa petitions from
employers looking to hire foreign workers for fiscal 2009, which starts Oct.
1.
In another report NFAP released on Monday, the organization said its analysis
of S&P 500 employers found that there are more than 140,000 job openings for
skilled positions at those companies today.
Major U.S. technology companies today average more than 470 U.S.-based job
openings for skilled positions, while defense companies have more than
1,265 each.
The skilled positions include all jobs that require at least an undergraduate
degree. NFAP examined posting for U.S.-based jobs at all companies in the S&P
500 companies. The vast majority of the data was gathered in January 2008,
with the rest compiled in December 2007 or February 2008, says NFAP's report.
So, who's trying to fill the most jobs? According the NFAP report, S&P 500
employers with the most job openings as of January 2008 are Microsoft (4,005),
Northrop Grumman (3,925), Lockheed Martin (3,901), General Electric (3,078),
Countrywide Financial (2,415), JPMorgan Chase (2,164), Tenet Healthcare
(2,050), United Health Group (1,927), Raytheon (1,694), IBM (1,670), Computer
Sciences Corp. (1,666), Cintas (1,664), L-3 Communications (1,618), Bank of
America (1,600), U.S. Bancorp (1,562) and Cisco Systems (1,504).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nfap.net/pdf/080311pr.pdf
National Foundation for American Policy
Embargoed for Release
1 PM EST, March 11, 2008
Contact: Stuart Anderson, 703-351-5042, info@nfap.net New Research Shows Major
U.S. Tech Companies and Defense Firms Struggling to Fill Thousands of Job
Openings Separate Study Finds H-1B Hiring Associated with Increases in
Employment at U.S. Technology Companies
Arlington, Va. -- American businesses continue to experience difficulty in
filling skilled positions in the United States, concludes a new study released
today by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), an Arlington,
Va.-based policy research group. The study, "Talent
Search: Job Openings and the Need For Skilled Labor in the U.S. Economy,"
found that major
U.S. technology companies today average more than 470 job openings for skilled
positions in the United States while defense companies have more than 1,265
each. The first-of-its-kind analysis involved examining job postings for all
companies in the Standard and Poor s (S&P) 500.
In a second, complementary study also released today, "H-1B Visas and Job
Creation," NFAP examined H-1B filings and year-by-year job totals for the
technology companies in the S&P 500 and found hiring skilled foreign nationals
on H-1B visas is associated with increases in employment at U.S. technology
companies.
Both studies can found on the NFAP website at www.nfap.com.
In "H-1B Visas and Job Creation" the data show that for every H-1B position
requested with the Department of Labor, U.S. technology companies increase
their employment by five workers. For technology firms with fewer than 5,000
employees, each H-1B position requested in labor condition applications was
associated with an increase of employment of 7.5 workers. This is particularly
remarkable since the actual number of people hired on H-1B visas is likely to
be much lower than the total number of applications filed with the Department
of Labor.
"Combined these two studies show that U.S. employers continue to need skilled
labor, including individuals not born in the United States who, the empirical
evidence indicates, are creating new opportunities for U.S. workers," said
NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson. "While every H- 1B hired may not
necessarily lead to five to seven Americans being hired, the data does
strongly imply, at minimum, that new H-1B professionals are complementing
other U.S.
hires, rather than
displacing them, as critics allege."
According to "Talent Search: Job Openings and the Need For Skilled Labor in
the U.S.
Economy," a number of companies have thousands of skilled positions open, with
this level of openings persisting for a year or more. This is part of a
longer-term trend that threatens to harm America s economic future, with U.S.
companies lacking access to the skilled professionals needed to grow and
innovate inside the United States.
More than 140,000 job openings for skilled positions are available today in
the 500 companies that make up the S&P (Standard & Poor s) 500. S&P 500
companies employ only about 14 percent of individuals working in America, so
the overall demand for skilled labor in the U.S.
economy is much greater. The Department of Labor s JOLTS survey indicates
there are approximately four million job openings in America every month at
all skill levels.
The S&P 500 companies with the most job openings as of January 2008 are
Microsoft (4005), Northrup Grumman (3925), Lockheed Martin (3901), General
Electric (3078), Countrywide Financial (2415), JPMorganChase (2164), Tenet
Healthcare (2050), United Health Group (1927), Raytheon (1694), IBM (1670),
Computer Sciences Corp. (1666), Cintas (1664),
L-3
Communications (1618), Bank of America (1600), U.S. Bancorp (1562) and Cisco
Systems (1504). These are openings for jobs in the United States requiring a
B.A., professional degree or higher.
The NFAP study "H-1B Visas and Job Creation" used a regression model that
controls for both general market conditions and firm size and found that there
is a positive and statistically significant association between the number of
positions requested in H-1B labor condition applications and the percentage
change in total employment. The research also found that even employers that
reduced employment reduced it less if they had filed for H-1Bs visas.
Examining companies in the sample that had layoffs, the regression results
found for every H-1B position requested on a labor condition application,
total employment is estimated to be two workers more than it otherwise would
have been. Data were used on total employment and H-1B labor condition
applications between 2001 and 2005, allowing calculation of employment growth
for 2002-2005.
An NFAP survey of 120 major U.S. technology companies, with a 22 percent
response rate, indicates preventing companies from hiring foreign nationals by
maintaining a low limit on H-1B visas is likely to produce the unintended
consequence of pushing more work to other countries.
Sixty-five percent of technology companies responding to the NFAP survey said
in response to the lack of H-1B visas they had "hired more people (or
outsourced work) outside the United States." This is significant in that even
if those companies responding to the survey are heavier users of H-1B visas it
means that these are the companies most likely to hire outside the United
States in response to an insufficient supply of skilled visas for foreign
nationals. Fifty-two percent of companies believed that for every H-1B
professional they hired it created one or more complementary jobs at their
firms or in the U.S. economy. Twenty-two percent thought the hiring of an H-1B
visa holder created 10 or more jobs. Seventy-four percent of company
respondents said an inability to fill positions because of the lack of H-1B
visas has potentially affected their "company s competitiveness against
foreign competitors or in international markets."
"The research showing H-1B visa holders are associated with increased hiring
at U.S. technology companies is further evidence that current restrictions on
high skill immigration are counterproductive and the result of legislative
inertia, rather than legitimate concerns," said NFAP Executive Director Stuart
Anderson. "The survey results indicate that when H-1B visa restrictions block
cutting-edge companies from hiring foreign nationals in America companies are
likely to place more of their human resources outside the United States."
About the National Foundation for American Policy Established in the Fall
2003, the National Foundation for American Policy
(NFAP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit,
non-partisan public policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia
focusing on trade, immigration and related issues. The Advisory Board members
include Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Ohio University
economist Richard Vedder and other prominent individuals.
Over the past 24 months,
NFAP s research has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the New
York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media outlets. The
organization s reports can be found at www.nfap.com.
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201
phone: (703) 351- 5042 fax: (703) 351-9292 www.nfap.com
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