When president Obama recently gave a speech announcing a new high-tech training program, education was highlighted as a part of the solution to the current employment disaster. The basic idea is pretty simple; emphasize so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) educational subjects because related fields are where future jobs are likely to be.

The context of education is somewhat terrible for discussing employment. In truth, neither S, T, E nor M represent an actual job that people get paid to do. Such details make up the content of academic coursework but when education is discussed as a job-creation engine, the jobs themselves remain an abstract out there somewhere in damn-yo-smartville. An academic position as research fellow is quite different than getting paid to grind script in a cubicle - yet both could be characterized as STEM jobs. For employment discussions, STEM education has often been roughly equated to yielding "jobs in tech". While far from a complete list these jobs include: design, engineering, coding, manufacturing, system/db administration and customer support.

The time investment required for education seems to work against using it as an acute response to unemployment. However, that still leaves the very important question of how technology and education provide for long-term opportunity and job stability. This answer lies in the actual level of opportunity tech jobs represent and just how stable they will continue to be. Are these jobs (or any well-paid jobs for that matter) viable long-term in a globalized economy?

As with most things in America, there are several views on this. The president presented one view:

Right now, there are more than four job-seekers for every job opening in America. But when it comes to science and high-tech fields, the opposite is true. The businesses represented here tell me they're having a hard time finding high-skilled workers to fill their job openings. And that's because today only 14 percent of all undergraduate students enroll in what we call the STEM subjects -- science, technology, engineering, and math.

This rosy-sounding information is sourced directly to a handful of representatives from specific businesses. It is a carefully presented wording that avoids discussion of the larger industry entirely. Another industry insider, Bill Gates, who's company has been known to acquire ~80% of the allocated H1B visas when he wants to shed employees, has this to add:

I cannot overstate the importance of overhauling our high-skilled immigration system. We have to welcome the great minds in this world, not shut them out of our country. Unfortunately, our immigration policies are driving away the world's best and brightest precisely when we need them most.

On the flip side, his statement was probably news to the many unemployed (Microsoft) software engineers, database administrators, etc. recently laid off who are having difficulty finding a new job. From this point of view, Dan Rather has posted a few clips and a HuffPo article highlighting his most recent program (transcript .pdf). It takes a closer look at some of the issues in America's tech employment caused by current immigration policy. The article makes this observation in response to Obama's quote:

That may be true, but recent research shows the number of STEM students graduating each year from U.S. universities far exceeds the number of new jobs.

And while U.S. corporations decry the shortage of tech talent -- industry data indicates there are upwards of 200,000 tech workers unemployed across the country today. Even with this glut of job-seekers, companies say the talent shortage is SO acute that they are forced to import foreign labor from overseas.

Rather's program is mainly focused on the negative impacts of the current implementation of H1B visas (and a couple related categories like H2B, etc.). H1Bs are often used to replace vested American workers with temporary workers from overseas - either on a rolling basis or in preparation for the jobs being sent offshore. The tone is somewhat sensationalistic but it is an issue that doesn't get much attention, so I'm pleased to see it highlighted. The video clips are representative of stories I have heard with depressing frequency both in the Northwest and in the Orlando area.

The transcript itself is really worth some parusal. One interesting part is when an out of work ex-Microsoft employee named Mary pulls up an employment web site in India. Such sites must be browsed in stealth mode because American IPs are usually blocked.

So I’m now pullling up a site from India where there are a bunch of ads that are posted and every day - I mean, right now there are 155 ads just in this one category alone that are all brand new that have come over, it looks like, in the last couple of days.

And you’ll see here this one I was able to pull up because I’ve got my stealth mode in here it’s like, “any course, any specialization, graduation not required.” Okay, so is that best and brightest? Oh! Yeah, this ones good. This particular company is looking to hire B1 or B2 visa preferred.[...] So let’s just see what they want. Dot-net. VB, SQL, Windows Development preferred. Not a problem. I guarantee you there’s 50 people around the corner from here who can do that. This is what they lack: they’re American citizens. A qualified American is not eligible to apply.
[...]
So this isn't-- has anything to do with, you know, being prejudiced. And I'm not against global competition. What I am opposed to is segregated employment. And our employment situation, with the laws that we have today in place, are disqualifying American citizens for jobs in their own zip code. There is an unlimited supply of people from across the world that come over in this labor arbitrage environment that are cheaper, lowering the salaries for everybody. And-- we're caught in the middle of that whole thing.

[emphasis mine]

This brings up a common fallacy about computer tech. College is often not necessary to get a job doing SQL or making web pages or whatever (this is also highlighted in one of the video clips where a woman is required to spend her last month training two completely inexperienced H1Bs to be her replacement). The job mentioned above was for a position writing insurance apps.  In the case of Mary, more education has not helped her find a job at all.

I hear regularly, "I'm overqualified." And I would go to the resume people at the school and at WorkSource and-- the outsourcing people. I'd say, "What do I do so that I'm not appearing over-qualified for these jobs?" And so I would take whole bunch of stuff off. And-- I was gonna take my MBA off. And that was a big deal to me because I-- worked at night for five years to-- go and-- and get that degree. And it was something that I was really proud of. And the thought that I would have to take it off my resume-- was troublesome to say the least.
[..]
If I was on a phone interview or something like that, and they say, “So what have you been doing,” and I tell them, “I was laid off from Microsoft” and then immediately, it changed -- the tone. “Thank you very much.” The people that were laid off were considered damaged goods. And-- it was-- I-- from what I understand people were discouraged from hiring them.
[..]
I was out of work for two years. I lost my house. I lost my health insurance. I lost my life savings. I still have my health-- and it was the worst experience of my life. And, you know, standing out and saying that the laws need to change is a big scary thing 'cause I don't want it to happen again.

Dan Rather contacted Microsoft to inquire why they are sponsoring guest workers when so many local tech workers are looking for jobs. Despite his former loquaciousness on the topic indicating he wanted even MORE guest workers, Mr. Gates refused an interview. Microsoft was kind enough to provide this written statement:

”UNFORTUNATELY, MICROSOFT WON’T BE ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PIECE YOU’RE WORKING ON, BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.”

One of the video clips also provides a glimpse of a related and disturbing trend that deserves mentioning. In this clip (the William Hamman one; having trouble embedding), the gentleman who lost his job was just a couple of years away from retirement. This happens over and over. A company will reorganize and the bulk of positions replaced, consolidated, moved offshore or otherwise eliminated (sometimes by simply renaming the postion) are, amazingly, held by employees who have been with the company long enough to be looking at retirement benefits and salaries representing a career's worth of advancement. It's a hell of a way to treat the people who dedicated careers to building these companies - and an industry.

If we are looking to tech for the jobs of the future, we need to begin crafting policy to promote and protect those jobs today. None of these issues are even nominally addressed in the border-focused immigration debate currently underway, yet they are crucial for any hope of winning the future™. These jobs are not going to create themselves and employ Americans just because a bunch of people went to school. Tech workers are among the least-protected in the nation. With few unions to speak of, it's pretty much every techie for themselves.

Finding workable solutions likely won't be easy but we sure aren't going to find them until we begin to look. Hopefully increased media attention will help to provide an opening to include this important issue in the wider immigration and employment discussions currently underway.