The previous panel showed that, overall, there are more college graduates than job openings requiring a degree. This would seem to suggest that all jobs requiring a degree would be filled by qualified applicants. Not so. As the chart shows, many of the occupations with the highest number of job openings are not the most popular among college students seeking a degree. Business administration degrees remain popular. All management occupations, with the exception of education administrators, will experience surpluses in qualified workers. Lawyers, engineers, and special education teachers will also experience a surplus of workers.
The remaining 9 out of 15 occupations, however, will experience shortfalls in qualified workers. The following table lists these shortfalls.
Worker Shortfalls, 1998-2008
| Systems analyst, data processing | -555,000 |
| Registered and licensed practical nurses | -540,400 |
| Computer engineers | -303,700 |
| Teachers, secondary school | -228,600 |
| Computer support specialists | -104,300 |
| Teachers, preschool | -79,500 |
| Physicians and surgeons | -38,300 |
| Education administrators | -30,000 |
| Teachers, elementary | -8,900 |
With this projected shortfall of qualified workers, what are organizations doing to meet their employment needs? They are looking outside the United States for qualified workers — a controversial process especially in times when recession may or may not be a fact and layoffs are daily announced. During the first and second quarters of the 2001 fiscal year (October 2000-March 2001), 172,126 petitions for H-1B visas8 were approved. In fiscal year 2000 (October 1999-September 2000), a total of 257,000 H-1B visas were approved.
Does this mean that those with degrees in fields of shortage are guaranteed a job? Do companies only look for qualified foreign workers when no domestic workers apply for a position? Not necessarily. Cisco Systems Inc., a high-tech firm, had the third highest number of H-1B petitions approved: 398 foreign workers were granted legal working status between October 1999 and February 2000. At the same time, the company admitted in 2000 to being inundated with 20,000 resumes per month, but only hiring 5% of those applicants. Microsoft Corporation had the sixth highest number of H-1B workers (362) and yet admitted to only hiring 2% of the thousands of applicants that apply.
In some cases, companies save money by hiring foreign workers. According to Norman Matloff of the Washington Post, CEOs from womenConnect.com and Ecutel testified before Congress in favor of a bill to increase the H-1B quota9. A Freedom of Information Act inquiry on the companies found that they paid their H-1B status programmers $10,000 less per year than the national average for new computer science graduates.
Where do college-educated workers find jobs if they can't find them in their field of study? If an estimated 30.8% of college graduates face underemployment or unemployment, is a college education worth the trouble and expense? We shall attempt to answer this question next.
Sources: Chart data: "Occupations with the Most Openings Requiring a Bachelor's Degree or Higher." America's Career Infonet. Retrieved January 31, 2002 from http://www.acinet.org; "Occupations with the Most Openings Requiring Post-Secondary Training or an Associate's Degree." America's Career InfoNet. Retrieved January 31, 2002 from http://www.acinet.org; National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education. Digest of Education Statistics, 1997-2000 editions. H1-B data: U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Leading Employers of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): October 1999 to February 2000, June 2000. Retrieved February 5, 2002 from http://www.ins.usdoj.gov. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): October 1999 to February 2000, June 2000. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Report on H-1B Petitions: Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2001 January 1, 2001-March 31, 2001. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Report on H-1B Petitions: Annual Report Fiscal Year 2000 October 1, 1999-September 30, 2000. Foreign Labor Data: Norman Matloff. "High-Tech Cheap Labor." Washington Post, September 12, 2000. Retrieved February 5, 2002 from http://www.washingtonpost.com. "H1-B Newsflash." Retrieved February 5, 2002 from http://immigration.about.com/library/blh1b-newsflash.htm. Underemployment data: Kristina J. Shelley "The future of jobs for college graduates." Monthly Labor Review, July 1992.
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