Fighting the Attack on GOOD JOBS: High-Tech Recovery Eludes U.S. Workers

U.S. workers in information technology are getting hit from all sides. If they work for big companies like IBM and Microsoft, they face layoffs and watch their jobs going offshore. If they work for contractors in the U.S., they still see their jobs disappear overseas. Sometimes, they're even forced to train their replacements, brought in from overseas locations under the H1-B visa program by companies that claim they can't find enough U.S. workers to hire.

Dewey J. Corl knows first-hand how outsourcing and offshoring have hurt U.S. workers in the IT sector. Living in New England, he had worked on many projects for the transportation and insurance industries and has lots of skills: experience as a programmer in more than 30 computer languages, and as a teacher, electronics technician, PC support help desk, manager, quality assurance analyst and much more.

But since 2002, those skills haven't helped all that much as he struggles to find work. In fact, he's regularly considered "over-qualified" for jobs.

"I have been teaching at the local community college and doing PC and network repair work to pick up extra money. But when I am asked by a young person about an IT career, I cannot promote the field because there are not many opportunities and the pay is not high," he added.

The tech sector remains in a jobless recovery, according to a recent study by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and CWA Local 37083, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. (full report at www.washtech.org)

While business leaders like to talk about the dramatic nationwide recovery in IT, and claim that they can't hire skilled workers fast enough, the facts show otherwise, said Marcus Courtney, the local's president.

"Large technology companies claim that they have so much work to spread around that recruiters can't find enough skilled American workers. That's why Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made a trip to Capitol Hill recently to persuade lawmakers to increase the number of immigration visas for engineers, developers and other skilled professionals from other countries," Courtney said.

"At the same time, large numbers of unemployed tech workers are being turned away outright or forced to take temporary positions far below their skill level, with reduced pay. IT has been called the industry of the future, but the future for tech workers is threatened by corporate strategies and federal policies that aren't in the best interest of America's workforce," he added. Follow the offshoring of tech jobs with offshore job trackers at www.techsunite.org and the AFL-CIO's Working America at www.workingamerica.org/jobtracker.

CWA strongly supports action to reduce and eliminate the H1-B visa program and opposes attempts by some members of Congress to nearly double the allowable number of these visas to 115,000.

CANDICE JOHNSON