Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

Onshored, too.

My mid-sized US city (Chattanooga) has an MSA of <500k ppl, yet employs approximately 1,762 H1-B visaholders (primarily as software engineers and data analysts, median salary $85k) [0]. Apparently nobody local is able/willing to perform these jobs?!

And yet the complaint/advice I hear most from local techies is to "WFH at a national company if you want to actually make any money, here. Or move elsewhere." Or some other iteration of "there aren't enough IT jobs here."

I'm a blue collar tradesman, so WFH isn't really practical; but I'd definitely have to move elsewhere if I were in tech and didn't want to WFH.

[0] https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=&city=chattanooga&yea...

This, there's also another kind of "shoring" where people are imported and given salaries at the bare minimum to qualify for H1B. As per my other post, the net amount is staggering and no where near the supposed 65k cap. My own right estimates put it at ~600k annually.

There’s a very simple fix for this. Don’t make H1B a lottery system. Grant them in order of highest-paying roles.

We get access to truly exceptional people for whom companies are willing to pay exceptional wages, and we eliminate the exploitation of H1B visa workers.

In the database I linked above, I have seen convenience store employees with low-salaried H1-B visas — how is it not possible to find such a citizen?!

Definitely like the idea of removing the lottery system — great suggestion.