Where are the jobs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering where the IT jobs went??

H1bs (and OPTs and L1s)

A landmark study from Harvard economist George J. Borjas, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has confirmed that the H-1B visa program is being used to undercut American workers.

After analyzing merged federal data from the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, and the American Community Surveys, Borjas found:

H-1B workers earn 16% less than comparable Americans – a gap of nearly $31,000 per year – after controlling for education, age, gender, occupation, and location.

Over a six-year visa term, each H-1B hire saves employers approximately $100,000 in payroll costs.

American software developers, the largest H-1B occupation, face a 30% wage disadvantage, and the underpayment is systemic: 75% of H-1B hires occur outside the top 25 firms, with a wage gap of -18.5% across those smaller employers.

Perhaps most revealing: when Borjas modeled the impact of charging employers $150,000–$200,000 per visa, demand barely declined – all or nearly all 85,000 annual visas would still be used. The savings from underpaying foreign workers are so large that employers would gladly pay and still profit at the expense of American workers.

George J. Borjas, NBER Working Paper No. 34793 (February 2026)

https://gborjas.scholars....4793_1.pdf

Tangible actions you can take to help your children

America’s largest tech companies are laying off American workers by the tens of thousands while continuing to import foreign labor through the H-1B visa program.

In 2022, the top 30 H-1B employers hired 34,000 new H-1B workers while laying off at least 85,000 employees.

If there were truly a “worker shortage,” these companies would not be conducting mass layoffs.

Please send a message to your U.S. Representative urging him to cosponsor H.R. 7451, Rep. Greg Steube’s EXILE Act, to end the H-1B visa program.

Then, send a message to your U.S. Senators urging them to cosponsor S. 2941, Sen. Tom Cotton’s Visa Cap Enforcement Act, to make the 65,000 annual H-1B cap a true cap by closing the loopholes that allow hundreds of thousands of H-1B workers to operate beyond it.

[Anonymous]

America has about 3 million new graduates every year

We have about 800,000 h1bs and 320,000 OPTs. 80% of h1bs are for low wages to entry level workers

So about 960,000 foreign workers taking entry level jobs in US because they are cheaper.

On a gross level 960,000 taken from 3 million new grads , and percentage of IT is much much less on order of 200,000 every year , so we are taking ALL the entry level jobs from our college grads and letting businesses replace them with cheaper disposable temporary workers

In what culture does this make sense ?

Only a culture that does not care for its children , or one that lets businesses replace exploit them .



https://ifspp.substack.com/p/data-on-how-america-sold-out-its

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I see first hand, there's a lot of underemployment because schools are open such short hours. Schools are only open 7 hours, but with a commute of 30 min each way, parents can only really work 6 hours. Mom (they would never think of making the dad stay home) can't get a job during school hours. And she also can't get a job that makes enough to afford before and after care. My county's cheap aftercare is $400 a month x 2 kids= $800 just for aftercare when you only need it a hour a day.

Schools are also failing students, so maybe we need to lengthen the school hours and just have 2 hours of tutoring at the end or beginning of school (not making teachers work longer hours but additional staff). A lot of families could make 8-4:30pm work, but cannot make 8-2:30pm work.

Schools also are always causing childcare crises for parents. Yes, schools aren't childcare, but when they don't open, parents can't get childcare instantly. I understand if buses can't run, but parents should be able to drive their kids to school instead and it still be open. Parents can't work when schools are always closed or running half day schedules.

You’d have to raise taxes to pay for this, so it will never happen. The majority of voters do not have kids who need school provided childcare.

This is by design - they want women home with children, not in the workforce

To be fair, a lot of women actually want to be home with children and not in the workforce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will need to point my unemployed friends to this thread because it seems that they are unemployed by choice. Apparently they are so many sectors hiring.

People don't just want any jobs. We are hiring without any experience and the pay goes from $18 an hour to $40 an hour within months. We cannot find workers.

I don't know your sector but if people have a family they can't support a family on $18 and hour. Often also those types of jobs do not guarantee 40 hours a week. Some less than 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I see first hand, there's a lot of underemployment because schools are open such short hours. Schools are only open 7 hours, but with a commute of 30 min each way, parents can only really work 6 hours. Mom (they would never think of making the dad stay home) can't get a job during school hours. And she also can't get a job that makes enough to afford before and after care. My county's cheap aftercare is $400 a month x 2 kids= $800 just for aftercare when you only need it a hour a day.

Schools are also failing students, so maybe we need to lengthen the school hours and just have 2 hours of tutoring at the end or beginning of school (not making teachers work longer hours but additional staff). A lot of families could make 8-4:30pm work, but cannot make 8-2:30pm work.

Schools also are always causing childcare crises for parents. Yes, schools aren't childcare, but when they don't open, parents can't get childcare instantly. I understand if buses can't run, but parents should be able to drive their kids to school instead and it still be open. Parents can't work when schools are always closed or running half day schedules.

You’d have to raise taxes to pay for this, so it will never happen. The majority of voters do not have kids who need school provided childcare.

This is by design - they want women home with children, not in the workforce

To be fair, a lot of women actually want to be home with children and not in the workforce.

So would a lot of men. How bout that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America has about 3 million new graduates every year

We have about 800,000 h1bs and 320,000 OPTs. 80% of h1bs are for low wages to entry level workers

So about 960,000 foreign workers taking entry level jobs in US because they are cheaper.

On a gross level 960,000 taken from 3 million new grads , and percentage of IT is much much less on order of 200,000 every year , so we are taking ALL the entry level jobs from our college grads and letting businesses replace them with cheaper disposable temporary workers

In what culture does this make sense ?

Only a culture that does not care for its children , or one that lets businesses replace exploit them .



https://ifspp.substack.com/p/data-on-how-america-sold-out-its

They come to the US as H1B’s, get their citizenship, bring their families over and branch out. Start 8a companies, buy mom and pop general stores out in the sticks. The path here is H1B but once they assimilate they’re competing in other sectors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering where the IT jobs went??

H1bs (and OPTs and L1s)

A landmark study from Harvard economist George J. Borjas, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has confirmed that the H-1B visa program is being used to undercut American workers.

After analyzing merged federal data from the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, and the American Community Surveys, Borjas found:

H-1B workers earn 16% less than comparable Americans – a gap of nearly $31,000 per year – after controlling for education, age, gender, occupation, and location.

Over a six-year visa term, each H-1B hire saves employers approximately $100,000 in payroll costs.

American software developers, the largest H-1B occupation, face a 30% wage disadvantage, and the underpayment is systemic: 75% of H-1B hires occur outside the top 25 firms, with a wage gap of -18.5% across those smaller employers.

Perhaps most revealing: when Borjas modeled the impact of charging employers $150,000–$200,000 per visa, demand barely declined – all or nearly all 85,000 annual visas would still be used. The savings from underpaying foreign workers are so large that employers would gladly pay and still profit at the expense of American workers.

George J. Borjas, NBER Working Paper No. 34793 (February 2026)

https://gborjas.scholars....4793_1.pdf

Tangible actions you can take to help your children

America’s largest tech companies are laying off American workers by the tens of thousands while continuing to import foreign labor through the H-1B visa program.

In 2022, the top 30 H-1B employers hired 34,000 new H-1B workers while laying off at least 85,000 employees.

If there were truly a “worker shortage,” these companies would not be conducting mass layoffs.

Please send a message to your U.S. Representative urging him to cosponsor H.R. 7451, Rep. Greg Steube’s EXILE Act, to end the H-1B visa program.

Then, send a message to your U.S. Senators urging them to cosponsor S. 2941, Sen. Tom Cotton’s Visa Cap Enforcement Act, to make the 65,000 annual H-1B cap a true cap by closing the loopholes that allow hundreds of thousands of H-1B workers to operate beyond it.

that will be interesting considering Trump uses H1Bs.

[Anonymous]

Offshoring is the current game in town. H1b outcry is a distraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Offshoring is the current game in town. H1b outcry is a distraction.

Multiple problems can coexist at once.

I work as a tax accountant for a large firm and know for a fact that the H1B employees at my office could be replaced work wise with citizen employees.

None of our work is so specialized nor is their pay so far below or above their counterparts at our company that we should need H1B employees. They’re only brought on because they can’t as easily jump to a competitor firm so they’re locked in as long term employees.


You are right that offshoring is worse.

[Anonymous]

I came to the US on F1 visa then OPT then grad school H1B and finally green card.

I have nothing against Indians but they absolutely have a monopoly on the H1B visa marketplace. If you are non Indian good luck. They only hire their own.

I have worked with them and they are not more impressive than Chinese or other engineers.

The lie that Americans cannot do the job that some of us migrants are doing is laughable job.

I got an H1B visa because the wage I was offered and my willingness to work for the same employer for a very long time made me cheaper to hire. I wasn't hired because I had unique skills. I was hired because I was cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had 3 friends become RN's and pass their RN boards in the last year.

They are all employed.

All of them were working 2-3 jobs while they were studying nursing.

Why are we encouraging boys to be nurses. Its interesting, we put all resources ensuring every girl goes to college while we encourage boys to go do HVAC. Then the girl becomes an RN makes good money, the boy becomes an HVAC tech makes ok money, and the girl complains that she can't date a non educated low earning man.

Huh??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I came to the US on F1 visa then OPT then grad school H1B and finally green card.

I have nothing against Indians but they absolutely have a monopoly on the H1B visa marketplace. If you are non Indian good luck. They only hire their own.

I have worked with them and they are not more impressive than Chinese or other engineers.

The lie that Americans cannot do the job that some of us migrants are doing is laughable job.

I got an H1B visa because the wage I was offered and my willingness to work for the same employer for a very long time made me cheaper to hire. I wasn't hired because I had unique skills. I was hired because I was cheap.

So, it was fine for you, but not fine for Indian workers? There are more Indian workers because.. get this.. there are just more Indians than most other groups.

This is like Cuban Americans who were once refugees supporting Trump removing other refugees.

Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

No, I'm not Indian. But, my white DH also came on an H1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Property Management, I realize this might not be for everyone, but we can't find competent people that will stay for more than 2 months. My company owns and operates apartment communities (we are not in the DMV, in a much lower COL area) and we recently revamped our whole pay structure - Leasing Agents (no experience necessary) went from $17/hour to $25/hour starting, plus commission, with a ton of room for growth. Maintenance techs went from $22/hour to $30/hour starting, Maintenance Supervisors are now $40/hour. Community Managers went from $70k starting to $100k starting. Vacation now starts at 3 weeks instead of 2 and every other vacation band got a week added, plus our salaries are all being adjusted to match the new numbers. And we still can't find people!! We are at the top of pay for our area too.

Then your model is broken. Not to oversimplify but there's something about your business, environment or maybe the pay that isn't drawing or keeping workers. What have the people that left told you about their reasoning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Useful post. Hopefully some people will find opportunities they didn't think about. Some of the sectors such as education can be very low pay and the barriers to entry (certification etc) high. While not every state is not West Virginia, there aren't many states that pay teachers the way NY does though for example.

Arlington pays teachers very well.

The Arlingon Police will have a $90,000 starting salary as of July 1st, 2026.

[Anonymous]

The only sector hiring is healthcare. Period. There are no jobs. It’s awful. Talking to people looking for a job, they might do 8 hrs of job search/applications a day for 8+ months before they get an offer. It’s really bad out there.