Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama recently spoke out on a subject that is obvious to any American technology worker: employees aren’t lacking, wages are. Large tech companies want restrictions on immigrant labor eased so they can pay less. I’ve written about this problem myself (internal link), but the Senator does a much better job of explaining it:
“As Microsoft’s layoffs show, there is a surplus—not a shortage—of skilled, talented, and qualified Americans seeking [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM employment,” he said. “Each year, universities graduate twice as many students with STEM degrees as find STEM jobs. According to the Census Bureau, more than 11 million Americans with STEM degrees are not employed in STEM jobs—or three in four STEM degree holders. Among recent graduates, about 35 percent of science students, 55 percent of technology students, 20 percent of engineering students, and 30 percent of math students are now working in jobs that don’t require any four-year college degree—let alone their area of specialty.”
