Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Sep 20, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Sep 20, 2003 |
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Info-Tech
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Human Resources H-1 B visas in IT sector down 75 pc in 2002 Vipin V. Nair
San Jose , Sept. 19 THE number of H-1B visas issued to India in 2002 declined by a staggering 77 per cent to 21,006 from 90,668 in 2001, reflecting the impact of the American economic slowdown on India's software industry. According to statistics released by the US Department of HomelandSecurity, the number of H-1B visas for initial employment in technology sector came down to just 27,199 in 2002, compared to 1,05,692 a year ago. The San Jose Mercury News said in a report that the percentage of all H-1B visas issued to technology workers fell to 26.5 per cent in 2002 from 52.5 per cent in 2001. The statistics are out at a time when the cap on H-1B visas is set to come down to 65,000 from 1,95,000 from next month. In the first three quarters of the current financial year (October-September), 56,986 petitions for H-1B visas were approved. A country-wise break up or corresponding numbers for 2002 were not available. The Mercury News quoted an Intel official as saying that the chip giant saw a 60 per cent decline in 2002 in the number of new H-1B visa workers. The official blamed the state of the economy for this drop and said the company was hiring lesser number of employees now. Journalist, Ms Margaret Steen of the Mercury News, who wrote the front-page report, said job situation in the Silicon Valley was still `pretty bad. "The overall numbers are still declining... Companies are not cutting down (jobs) not quite as much (in the pat), but still they are not hiring much,'' she told Business Line. There are concerns in certain quarters about companies offshoring work to countries like India. Ms Steen said it was not clear whether the US would take a re-look at its decision to bring down the H-1B visa cap to 65,000. "Many people told me that they would be pretty much surprised if it stays at 1,95,000,'' she said. She added that there was also concern in the US over the expiry of the $1,000 fee for each visa, used to fund training programmes for American workers.
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