Unavailability of American tech workers forces Indian IT firms in US to hoard employees and subcontractors

Availability of a limited number of technology workers in the United States is forcing Indian IT firms to hoard employees and subcontractors, according to a media report. The Economic Times, citing the US Bureau of Labour Statistics’ data said that in September 2018 there was a massive gap in jobs and supply and only one out of four software jobs were being filled. The report added that there were as many as 1,15,000 jobs a month available for application software developers. However, there were fewer than 32,000 recruitments. Last week, US President Donald Trump assured H-1B visa holders, an overwhelming majority of whom are Indian IT professionals, that his administration would soon bring changes that would give them certainty to stay in America and a “potential path to citizenship”. [caption id=“attachment_5131221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Trump said that his administration was planning an overhaul of US policies on H-1B visa and would encourage talented and highly-skilled people to pursue career options in the US. “H1-B holders in the US can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship. We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the US,” Trump tweeted on Friday. The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Indian IT industry has been facing a shortage of skills and double-digit attrition. In December last year, KS Viswanathan, Vice President of Nasscom, had admitted that there was a relevant skill shortage in the country to capitalise on the huge opportunities from digital platforms. He said the industry would need around 3,00,000 engineers for analytics and data sciences over the next five years. Though the attrition rate in the industry has reduced over the years, the trend has reversed in this fiscal for various reasons, including inability to adopt to newer technologies and not keeping pace with demand for reskilled techies. With inputs from agencies