Harris Miller, Soothsayer

By: danarothrock
Published On: 6/3/2006 5:17:11 PM

Prior to the current Senate campaign, Harris Miller (D,VA) was president of the Information Technology Association of America and was the foremost Congressional lobbyist for increases in high-tech worker visas.

Wikipedia: Harris Miller

Forsooth:

Bouncing Back:
Jobs, Skills and the Continuing Demand for IT Workers
Information Technology Association of America
May 2002
I. Executive Summary


The Demand for IT Workers

* Companies are optimistic about future hirings over the next twelve months. They project an aggregate demand for IT workers of 1,148,639 in 2002, of which they expect 578,711 positions to go unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers, referred to as the "gap" in IT workers.


ITAA: Bouncing Back (2002 .pdf)


How reliable are the findings of this report?

Bouncing Back is drawn from a survey of line IT managers in for-profit US companies with 50+ employees using a stratified, projectable sample. The sample was segmented into 377 non-IT and 155 IT-companies. The survey has a confidence level of 90 percent with a margin of error or +/- 3.6 percent.


Bouncing Back FAQs (.pdf)

So, how did Mr. Miller's predictions turn out?

Say WHAT?

2003 Workforce Survey
Presented at the National IT Workforce Convocation
May 5, 2003 Arlington, VA


Future demand for IT workers

Last year, ITAA titled its annual workforce survey "Bouncing Back." Demand for IT workers appeared to be recovering from 2001 lows and the tapering of force reductions seemed to provide grounds for cautious optimism. Wrong. Data collected through 2002 and for this survey indicate that demand for IT workers is down dramatically. Hiring managers say they will seek to fill just 493,431 IT jobs over the next 12 months....


ITAA 2003 Workforce Survey (.pdf)

My calculation shows a 232% error margin for ITAA projections, +/-100%, with a 0% confidence level.

Congress buys this stuff hook, line and sinker.

How confident are you of Mr. Miller?

Dana Rothrock
Houston, TX
unemployed computer systems engineer

Comments



Someone shoould ask Harris Miller (PaulVa - 6/3/2006 5:25:04 PM)
"If you're such a real Democrat, why were you in India, of all places, attending an Indian trade associarion conference as the keynote speaker, and advising them of how to attract MORE American jobs.

Absolutely makes me want to puke.



Thank you for posting this (DemTilDeath - 6/3/2006 6:05:05 PM)
Nice that you have found us.  Hope you'll write some letters to the editor in Virginia.  You can send them online with this link:

https://ssl.capwiz.com/arab/dbq/media/?command=state_search&state=va



I will try to do more of these exposes (danarothrock - 6/3/2006 6:41:06 PM)
ITAA has cleaned up their website and removed all the links to past press releases and workforce studies. They have all been seriously flawed and served only as propaganda to give Congress a reason to sell out the American worker and frogmarch America toward globalism.

Of course, ITAA was not alone. The National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics all chimed in with the same inflated predictions of "severe labor shortages" in science and engineering.

They did it again yesterday:
ITAA Press Release
ITAA Says Evidence Clearly Shows H-1B Cap Needs Upward Adjustment
02-Jun-06
...
"Access to the world's best talent and skills in an increasingly competitive global economy is a no-brainer," said ITAA Senior Vice President Jeff Lande. "Congress needs to move quickly to pass legislation that raises the cap substantially and adds a mechanism that avoids these unfortunate shortfalls by allowing the number of annual visas granted to increase based on market demand."

This press release was promptly printed in hundreds of US newspapers yesterday. Pending immigration legislation (S.2611, S.2691) will make these work visas unlimited.

Our immigration laws were designed to protect American jobs, wages and workplaces.  This unconstitutional abuse of visa law is destroying our economy.  Science and engineering real wages have been dropping for a decade.  American students are avoiding those professions.  Foreign students are also avoiding those studies because there are no jobs for them upon graduation.

H-1B and L-1 visas are the Trojan Horse of offshore outsourcing.



This is disgusting. (DemTilDeath - 6/3/2006 6:57:41 PM)
I am sickened to see that the ITAA is still at this.  It makes my blood boil.

Thank you for letting us know this. 



Check out their outsourcing agreement (PaulVa - 6/5/2006 11:11:57 AM)
with NASSCOM.  They signed an agreement to hold a series of road shows across the United States promoting Indian offshore sources. 

References to it have been cleaned up on this side, but not in India.