Biden to Let Trump's H1-B Visa Ban Expire in Win for Tech

[William Seger]

12. It depends on the area

It seems that companies concentrated in certain areas of California do have trouble filling jobs with qualified people, but that's because of the concentration. I've worked in IT in the Washington, D.C. and Denver/Colorado Springs area, and I never saw that as a problem in those areas. One job I had was as manager of a small group of developers, and every time I posted a position, I was flooded with applicants and never had a problem finding someone qualified. But over the last couple of decades, large companies in particular have taken to hiring a large percentage of consultants instead of employees, and many consulting companies have found it advantageous to recruit H1-B people. In my 35-year career, I'm not aware of a single instance where the company directly hired an H1-B employee because they were unable to find anyone else qualified.

As for unemployment during the pandemic, fortunately the vast majority of IT workers have been able to shift to working from home -- a large percentage already were, at least part-time. My wife is still working in IT and has been working from home for the past year, and now her employer is considering not requiring employees to return to the office when this is over.