There was an article recently on Business Week (here) on how the US is not falling behind in math, science, and technology. In fact, we seem to be turning-out more technologists and engineers than we can use. I disagree.
The problem seems to be that those technically-minded people that US schools are churning-out won’t work for “starting” wages. There’s a glut of tech jobs. And, ironically, there’s a glut of tech people. But there are few tech jobs that are willing to pay what qualified people want.
Imported tech workers, such as from China and India, are willing to work for less money than their American counterparts. They aren’t necessarily any better or worse at the job, but they’ll work for less money.
Guess what? That means that American graduates end up not getting jobs in-field, or get underpaid.