You pick up any paper, and there is a huge media speculation of job losses, and impending doom due to the visa restrictions.
Not just USA, but we see reports how UK (ref Brexit), Singapore, and this week, even Australia and Singapore seem to have upped the ante'! And passionate counter statements from IT companies in India, how they are not taking away jobs but are actually net creators of more jobs, and how they
- have invested billions of dollars in setting up facilities in the US, directly employ about 100,000 US citizens and support jobs for three times as many Americans
-Over the last four years, job creation by Indian IT companies in the US grew 10% annually compared to a 1.7% cent overall job growth in that country.
According to online job posting data compiled by the US-based The Conference Board, in March this year, computer and mathematical science ads increased from 16,900 to 524,800. The supply/demand rate was 0.26: that is, there are four advertised openings for every job-seeker. In other words, even when companies want to hire locally, there aren’t enough skilled IT professional in the US to take them up.
What one forgets -is post the 2008 subprime crisis, and due to technology, automation and AI etc, a lot of jobs have simply vanished- and a totally new set of job skills are in demand. The World Economic Forum has brought out a series of surveys and reports on the Future of Jobs. And one would be prudent to look ahead, and plan. And be prepared for the changing demands of the VUCA times.
There is a huge notion that host nations are tightening their immigration policies only hint at 'locals first'. Because the locals are displaced because their jobs are poached by foreign companies winning contracts via lower bids and thus replaced by citizens from abroad. On the contrary, host nations acknowledge the need of local skills shortage and hence are willing to pay equal to or higher than locals salary, if no local talent is available.
What we are seeing happening globally is countries once again restoring the good faith in hiring. As an active member of an international recruitment network with over 470 partners across 41 countries, we are privy to the stringent demands that our clientele for the hot skills, and it is apparent that it is the fittest who will survive!
I think the need of the hour is changing the perception of the Indian knowledge worker and focus be on discerning the demand of the new skills, and strategizing on leveraging the supply of the best & brightest on short term without the labour bondage & no wage discrimination. After all, in a world where technology and finance capitals are becoming level playing ground, it is the quality of the human capital that is going to differentiate between the winners and the rest.
In this hype, one gets a feeling that nations & policy makers are in a time warp. For if one were to simply look at the last decade- there have been so many disruptions that have happened -the world has changed!
And even in the tech world, and internet specifically, the GAFA (Google Apple Facebook Amazon) have been given a big run by the NATU (Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla Uber) innovations. All businesses that have grown despite regulation or bureaucracy!
So why all the hue and cry for visas & curbs?
We might just be better off re-thinking about the concepts of work, jobs and leisure? Time to take charge of one's own life :)!?
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