Re: MIDRANGE-JOBS Digest, Vol 5, Issue 184

We need to protect the industry.... that is a load. Protectionism leads to lazy sub par work. Take an American history class at your local community college. America has been built and will continue to be built by competition. When competition comes you need to man up and adapt. Sorry that is hard, sorry that it is not what you want to do, but that is what happens and will continue to happen. I live in Orange County California I know a lot of people that make less than 60 thousand a year and make it just fine. They don't want to live in a lower cost of living center, they like it here even though it is expensive. I suppose you would like it if we just paid everyone the same wage no matter the job or skill or need and every iSeries shop should be required to have a minimum of what 20 RPG programmers. IBM should put that in the licenses agreement.

Colleges don't teach programming in general because American kids don't want to be programmers.

Joe Pluta wrote:

*** Please pay close attention when replying to a message on this list!
*** If you want the reply to go to the list, use REPLY-TO-ALL
*** Recruiters may advertise only permanent employment positions in this list.

From: Jon Paris

I have found that the issue is _not_ a lack of skilled RPG
programmers - it is a lack of _affordable_** RPG programmers. I have
had many customers ask me how they can find junior and intermediate
RPG programmers to fill positions they have available.

Or, to look at it another way, employers are unwilling to pay the rates
required to hire local labor, and they're able to do so because they can
hire cheap foreign labor to fill those positions.

** "affordable" is in the eye of the beholder. One customer I know
in California is looking for an intermediate P/A - initial pay at
around $60K - but they can't find anyone at that salary level. I
would have said that was a reasonable amount for an intermediate
position but ...

If you believe in a free market (which all the global economists swear by),
then salaries like anything else should obey the laws of supply and demand.
The salary would rise to the point where American programmers could afford
to take the jobs. More importantly, American students would look to the
industry as a viable opportunity, schools would teach the courses, and so
on.

The problem is that the artificially low-cost supply of foreign labor
undercuts the labor pool and allows employers to set unreasonably low
standards, which thereby depresses the industry. We need to protect the
industry, not globalize it.

As to your idea that $60K is a good intermediate position, it depends
entirely on where you have to live. An intermediate position should be
someone with what, at least five years experience, right? That level of
experience ought to afford you at least a house. Well, if you're living in
San Francisco, I can tell you that $60K a year isn't going to do that.

What's really funny is that if American companies allowed American workers
to telecommute and live in locations of their choice, we'd have less
pollution, less oil use, and people could live in lower cost-of-living areas
and take lower-paying positions. But no, that's not acceptable. You have
to drive into work and sit in your cubicle all day.

And then when nobody can afford to take the jobs, employers offshore these
positions without batting an eye.

It's silly.

Joe