Globalization induced labor displacement

Though global migration is seen as a growing necessity, most countries impose restrictions prohibiting mobility of individuals. The Economic Intelligence Unit briefing report ‘Paper Chase – Document fraud in the Immigration process’, states that even though host governments are in favor of allowing inward migration, the proliferation of fraudulent documentation is on the rise, causing delays in the immigration screening process. The risks posed by fraudulent documents are on the rise and the forged documents industry links directly to people-smuggling / human-trafficking and other organized crimes.

The percentage of resume fraud in India has seen an increase. Firms have already begun sharing the database of job applicants who have faked information in their CV’s. IT sector is the second most affected vertical, while the banking sector has the highest discrepancies, when it comes to fudged resumes. One in every four CVs received by the IT services firms is known to have discrepancies. And one in every six CVs in the BPO industry is fudged. While the problem is dominant at the fresher level, it goes up to the senior levels as well.

In the developing country, the final employment impact of increasing trade depends on the interaction between the productivity growth and output growth – both in traded goods sectors and in non-traded sectors. While on hand exports involve demand-led employment growth, but – on the other hand – imports may displace previously protected domestic firms, including labor redundancy. In the presence of supply constraints, productivity growth may exceed output growth even in the exporting sectors, to the detriment of job creation. Therefore, sheltered sectors in the labor market may act as labor sinks, often implying hidden unemployment and underemployment. These incident labor sinks are the areas of employment which are filled by the out-of-state migrant workers.

About Author: The author of this blog has written many blogs related to H1B visa, IT Jobs, Knowledge workers, migration, work visa

Emergence of temporary staffing

A vast majority of foreign employers that advertise for local jobs on Indian career sites and LinkedIn groups are in the temp staffing arena, where they don’t have jobs, but attempt to fill their end client’s job vacancies! These companies therefore rely heavily on their good reputation among technical professionals to agree to be submitted for a potential contract.  As the demand for foreign workers starts to increase, the process of supplying to this demand in the shortest possible time will be critical for companies dependent on Indian labor.

Companies are increasingly turning to temps and to a much larger universe of contract workers. Hiring is always healthy for an economy. Yet the rise in temp and contract work shows that many employers aren't willing to hire for the long run.

Temporary workers are often paid less than full-time workers, and are not likely to receive any benefits. Such workers are less likely to have health insurance or retirement benefits, or be protected by labor laws. Not providing health insurance means that ailing workers often rely on emergency room treatment or Medicaid, treatment scenarios in which the costs are largely covered by the public, adding to the taxpayer burden — a charge.

Normally, temp work is not something that economists worry about. Employers often hire temps instead of permanent staff in the early stages of an economic recovery while confidence is still shaky. And temporary or contractor jobs, including the sort on offer through tech companies can be pulled in the labor market for people who might otherwise fail to find a way in, such as the inexperienced or the long-term unemployed.

About Author: The author of this blog has written many blogs  related to H1B visa, IT  Jobs, verified employees, work visa, knowledge workers

Recruitment fraud

The online recruiting platform has primarily been a way of connecting job seekers with employers in a shortest time possible. Traditionally recruitment consultants have used job portals for short listing relevant candidates as per the clients brief and expectations. And the ability to mine the candidate database, short-listing them, managing their responses and the ease/efficiency of doing the same are the most critical factors on which the efficacy of the recruitment service depends.

While Naukri.com has been able to sustain its market share through effectively implementing these methods, it has earned a first mover advantage by starting early in this space, alternate sources of recruitment like social recruitment (LinkedIn) and advanced search technologies (semantic search used by Monster) have however steadily emerged over the years.

Semantic search technology used by Monster.com has helped in filtering resumes by breaking them, structuring the data according to certain key attributes (skills, job designation, work history, education) and substantially reduced the resume database to a list of matching resumes without much of human intervention. Availability of such technologies was a big advantage for the recruiters who only purchased relevant resumes from the recruitment portal, reducing both the cost and time of short-listing.

From a job seeker perspective, the social recruitment portals help stay connected professionally and serves as a medium of alternative resume for hiring managers.

With the fast accelerating globalization, the challenges faced by organizations increase. The menace of verifying a false identity online is frustrating and time consuming; and increases the growing underground economy further, when the job seeker data is sold to recruiters adding more to the chaos.

Abot Author: The author of this blog has written many blogs related to H1B visa, migration, verified employees, ITJobs etc

Factors to know about Foreign education consultants

The brokerage of student enrollments by foreign universities creates a student enrollment grey market that misleads and misinform. Arguably, the pursuit of a foreign degree and the pleasure of walking into an education counselor’s office should be kept separate.

Higher education is a costly affair, and most importantly the student’s future depends on it. There are bigger costs when it comes to seeking admission to a university overseas. Many would agree, the costs towards a Master’s degree program in India is generally about 30 – 40 per cent lower than the ‘preferred destinations’ abroad.

Now the most obvious question arises – Why? Because unlike in India, getting admitted to a foreign university is often facilitated by a ‘consultant’,  earning them a high markup simply for filling a seat in an institution of higher learning abroad, increasing the tuition costs – sometimes up to 40 per cent higher.

No one should feel obliged to adopt a particular process or put on a status quo issue. So if you want to seek a foreign university program and are hell bent on it, do due diligence check on the student counselor you meet next. Arm yourself with the knowledge that often the most ‘preferred’ universities are not necessarily the ones that suit your needs rather they could be the ones that offer a greater profit margin to the counselor. Know that the tuition fees you pay to the foreign university, a percentage of these come back to the counselor that has helped you seek an admission!

Foreign universities often engage in enrollment drives overseas visiting many countries to source student enrollments and offer on-the-spot admissions. It is an offer made, when the offer actually does not exist. Well known and state funded universities do not have to go out and seek students for enrollment, only the lesser known ones do.

There are of course some interesting variations to how student enrollments happen – and it seems that on the whole it is just an exhaustive affair. But there’s a deep routed effect to these practices – students often end up paying admission fees to multiple foreign universities in the hope of getting a confirmed seat and consequently are recipients of multiple (I-20) immigration documents, allowing them to switch to a different college on arrival. God forbid if the university turns out to be a fraudulent one!

You grow up to be a stronger person while studying abroad!

When you think of people studying abroad, you see their selfies in class and you see them cooking Indian food with a bunch of Indian people, but those are just photo montages, not the whole truth.

It doesn’t show you the apprehension, the nervous butterflies and the sinking feeling of leaving everything familiar on this side of the ocean. You don’t click pictures of your first day in class when you are trying really hard to fit in and find people to connect with.

You learn to eat alone at restaurants and watch movies alone in cinema. You learn that you don’t need to depend on people for most things

You learn that everyone who lives there can run to their siblings, best friends from primary school if they want to. Meanwhile only your computer is waiting for you in your room.

It’s been an uphill battle and sometimes it runs you to the ground, but you manage to grow up, to become responsible for yourself, to understand the world outside of a safe cocoon. You come out resilient and strong.

About Author: The author of this blog has written many blogs related to  H-1B visa, ITJobs, Knowledge Workers, Migration, verified employees, work visa, 

A bipartisan effort to change how H1B visas are allocated

                                        

Two U.S. House lawmakers are involved in a dual-party effort to change how H-1B visas are allocated, moving away from a random lottery and using salary offers instead.

Today, the U.S. distributes 85,000 H-1B visas through a lottery, with the odds of winning roughly one-in-three based on current demand. There were 236,000 visa petitions submitted this year. This legislation envisions distributing wages in a way that won't tilt the H-1B visa to high-wage regions; it would keep a four-tier prevailing wage system, which accounts for pay differences by region and skill.

ISSA and Lofgren have been critical of H-1B wage rates. When it was disclosed that Southern California Edison workers were training their replacements, ISSA said the case "appears to be an example of precisely what the H-1B visa is not intended to be: a program to simply replace American workers, overall with cheap labor from overseas."

The bill would also raise the $60,000 salary that creates an exemption for H-1B dependent firms (mostly IT services firms that offshore work). The new wage level hasn't been set. H-1B-dependent firms can displace U.S. workers, provided they pay at least that wage. A master's degree also creates an exemption, but that would be eliminated.

The bill also envisions eliminating per-country caps on green cards for advanced degree holders. The government sets a cap of 140,000 employment-based green cards a year, with no more than 7% from any single country. This has led to long waiting times for people from China and India, where demand is the highest.

In the emerging proposal, what matters, is the wage level and whether the employer is paying above it. Employers offering 100% or 200% over prevailing wage level will be in the strongest position to get a visa.