‘U.S. order on federal hiring based on misperceptions’

The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to bar federal agencies from hiring foreign workers appears to be based on “misperceptions and misinformation”, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump on Monday signed an executive order on “Aligning Federal Contracting and Hiring Practices with the Interests of American Workers,” that prevents federal agencies from contracting or subcontracting foreign workers, including those on H-1B visa.

The association that represents the Indian IT services and ITES industry said the order comes at a time when there is a huge shortage of skills in Scient, Technology, Engineering and Management (STEM) in the U.S., that workers on short-term, non-immigrant visas such as H-1B and L-1 help bridge.

Measure to hit recovery

“As the world opens up post the COVID-19 induced lockdowns, it is important for the U.S. to be able to access talent critical to the recovery phase. Measures that restrict access to talent will slowdown the recovery phase of U.S. economy, jobs, innovation and R&D,” Nasscom said.

The unemployment rate for computer occupations (those most common amongst H-1B visa holders) declined from 3% in January this year to 2.5% in May, while the unemployment rate for all other occupations grew from 4.1% to 13.5% in the period.

Further, in the 30-day period ending May 13, there were more than 625,000 active job vacancy postings advertised online for jobs in common computer occupations, including those most common to H-1B visa holders, it noted.