No Shortage of Trained American Engineers
Re “The Male-Heavy World of Science,” Opinion, Feb. 2: So statistics imply that there is a shortage of high-tech workers? What world is Margaret Wertheim describing? Certainly not mine. If there were truly a shortage of trained science workers, then I and my other out-of-work friends just couldn’t exist.
After 10 years of working in Silicon Valley, I find myself, at the ripe old age of 53, sitting at home while employers like Apple Computer advertise that they prefer “recent college graduates.” I mention Apple because I have particular expertise with the Macintosh operating system, which is not taught in college, yet I have sent them resume after resume for over a year without receiving a single response.
Wertheim doesn’t provide any statistics to back up her bald statement that “increasingly, these [foreign engineering] students are choosing to return to their home countries after graduation.”
Very few of the Asian students I know are returning home, at least for several years. Instead, they are staying on, working under H1-B visas that render them virtual serfs to the company that sponsors them -- and coincidentally accepting lower wages for jobs that could have been filled by Americans.
Many of the workers in technical companies do not have technical degrees. Many of those who have them do not do jobs that require them. What we need is not more science education but more companies that are required to hire from our domestic labor pool instead of importing cheap labor from abroad.
Allan Masri
San Jose
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Wertheim implied that something is “wrong” with U.S. students, but the same National Academies body she cites noted that pursuing a doctorate is a losing financial proposition for Americans in the high-tech area. During the five years or so spent in doctoral study, the student is forgoing income he or she would have made in industry. The salary premium paid for a doctorate is not sufficient to make up this deficit, even through a lifetime of work.
A 1989 National Science Foundation policy paper specifically advocated importing foreign scientists and engineers in order to hold down PhD salaries. Also, a Stanford/RAND study found that we are overproducing doctorates in science and engineering, whether foreign or domestic. Wertheim cites hiring of foreign PhDs by the U.S. high-tech sector, but the actual scale is minuscule. Only 1% of foreign nationals sponsored for work visas in computer-related jobs have a doctorate in the field.
Before warning that the sky is falling, Wertheim should have gone outside to take a look.
Norman Matloff
Professor, Computer Science
UC Davis
