IP: WHAT HIGH-TECH LABOR SHORTAGE? from Edupage

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

For the past several years, officials from Microsoft, Intel and other
high-tech companies have lobbied Congress to increase the number of skilled
foreign workers allowed into the country each year, citing a labor shortage
that leaves 350,000 jobs now open.  But an American University economics
professor says, "There's no evidence that the computer industry has worse
labor shortages than other high-skilled industries."  Robert Lerman says
that high-tech companies may feel the labor pinch more acutely because of
its high reliance on temporary workers, who are becoming less plentiful as
more full-time positions are opening up.  But according the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, even though the number of computer scientists has tripled in the
last ten years, their pay rate has increased only 4.4% above inflation --
far below other types of workers such as surveyors (20% above inflation) and
dietitians (17%).  Programmers' pay has actually lagged inflation since 1988
by 1.5%.  "If employers were desperate, they'd be willing to pay more," says
Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at University of California at
Davis.  (Business Week 29 Jun 98)