The Land of Opportunity No More - Indian Tech Workers Go Home

We have now come full circle on the outsourcing situation.   A recent poll from a tech-job portal states that 69% of technology professionals from India intend to head home, with 57% of these professionals being US citizens or permanent residents (http://bit.ly/jC8svA).   Read that again - that is over two thirds of the Indian IT professionals in the US.  We are no longer the land of opportunity for the world’s technical community.  In the late 1990’s and throughout the 2000’s, workers from around the world, and more specifically India, would come the US to work for our blue chip firms and learn the ways of corporate IT from America.  Many would hope to get their green card and then citizenship in hopes of striking it rich during the technology boom and live “the American dream”.  Based on a survey of over 1,000 Indian IT workers, many feel that the opportunities are better in India than in the US.   Another reason some are heading back is they believe their children will receive a better education in India.    

So there you have it.  The “land of dreams and opportunity” for Indian IT workers that once was the US is no more.  And we did it to ourselves.  Big tech firms and CEOs from corporate America talked out of both sides of their mouths.  From one corner they would say there were no tech jobs in the US and from the other corner would lobby the government for more H1B visas.  Why?  Cheaper labor and therefore lower costs, of course.  Their short-sightedness regarding quick quarterly profits never took into account the damage that would be done to the US workforce.  

According to the Department of Defense, there has been a 43% decline in computer science graduates over the past 5 years (http://smrt.io/m4w9SB). Adding to the shortage is the pending retirement of baby boomers.  And although there is currently a high unemployment rate among American workers, knowledge workers experience only a 3.7% unemployment rate.   So, America, get your kids to stop drinking Espresso and start learning Java.  Supply is down and demand is high for young IT workers, meaning increased opportunity and increased wages.  While the Indian labor force has had its fill and corporate America has helped cause this dilemma, there may be something to be gained by this for the US labor market. Time will tell…