Re: H-1Bs, by the numbers

On Jun 26, 11:59 am, Geoff Davis <gmda...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://blog.phds.org/2007/6/26/h-1bs-by-the-numbers

Here's an interesting resource: a Department of Labor site that lets
you see who is hiring H-1Bs and how much they are paying them (http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CaseH1B.aspx). The UI is awful - looks like the
DoL could use some better programmers - but if it hurts your eyes too
much, you can download all the raw data and write your own. (In fact,
I think that would make a good project, and I bet one could get funded
to do so)

A few examples. H-1B hires last year:

**Universities**
* Harvard: 380
* Duke: 313
* Stanford: 364
* University of California system: 1684

(Hires at the above places appear to be largely lab techs and
postdocs)

**Tech companies**
* Google: 350 (in California). Salaries range from $80K to $120K
* Intel: 367 (in Oregon), 682 (in California)
* Apple: 215 (in California)
* (Whoa!) Microsoft: 4100 (in Washington) Salaries start around $75K

Here's an interesting project idea:
* Download the data sets, merge the efile and fax data
* Normalize the employer names so you can do a search for, say, all
Microsoft hires in the US
* Match school names to IPEDS codes so you can do things like get
breakdowns of H-1B hires as a function of faculty size, etc
* Extract postdoc salaries and post them by institution
* Look at compensation relative to prevailing wages - who's hiring
high-end people vs. low-end people?
* Overall, how are academic institutions (who are exempt from caps)
using H-1Bs? What kinds of people are they hiring?

I suspect that at least some of these questions have already been
answered and that there may already be cleaned-up versions of the data
set floating around econ departments. I bet Ron Hira (http://
print.rit.edu/people/profile.php?page=59) would know about such
things.

http://blog.phds.org/2007/6/26/h-1bs-by-the-numbers



I have NO proof... just a suspicion...that these figures paid HIB's
are spun to the high side to mask the issue of hiring cut rate to
avoid paying US salary rates.


these figures do not comport with what I have observed either... a
closer look is warranted... my guess is that the cost of hiring and
recruiting them has been added into the 'costs of employment'..


One thing we know for sure, those figures are 5 or 10 times higher
than what these same US companies are paying for the same work
offshore...and most of that work is telecommutable... the numbers
simply dont add up.... especially in the engineering business, many
very first rate US engineers, many at the PhD level, many
proffessors... out of work, not getting offers, as the jobs go to
indians who most of us have observed to be about 25% competent, but
not many better than that, 25% completely incompetent....

the US engineers are out of work for a reason, and its NOT because
they are turning down 80 to 120k jobs.


those figures like so much of what we see from govt these days are way
more than suspect. imo




Phil Scott

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