The Trump administration is moving to restrict the H-1B work visa for foreign workers. This will greatly affect computer programmers because they want the jobs to go to US workers. In relation, a new study was published on Monday from the journal New American Economy that showed many states struggle with severe shortages of skilled workers.
The researchers analyzed 40,000 board jobs and the ratio of job openings that were posted online in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations and the number of unemployed workers in the field. It showed that Colorado had 15.3 job openings for every unemployed worker in STEM last year. It is near the 13 to 1 ratio conducted by Burning Glass Technologies.
The New American Economy reported that the Burning Glass Technologies is a leading market analytics firm that produced the tool "Labor Insight" to measure the ratio of jobs and number of STEM employers. The technique has been used to determine the magnitude of gaps in the labor market
North Dakota had a ratio of 87.6 STEM openings for every unemployed STEM worker. South Dakota had a ratin of 71.5 STEM openings for every unemployed STEM worker and Iowa had a ratio of 63.6 to 1.
John Feinblatt, chairman of New American Economy said that US companies are so drastically short of STEM workders and that the country should open its doors to high-skilled talent, The Denver Post reported.
Each year on April 1st, the US government usually begins accepting applications for H-1B temporary visas. It has been instrumental in helping tech companies recruit the talent that they need to grow and compete in the innovative economy. The US labor force doesn't have enough workers that are highly trained or specializes in STEM.
Most American STEM graduates work in other professional fields that are non-STEM related. It's not because there are not enough STEM jobs.
