This is a pretty incredible report by CNET:
Microsoft said Monday it had no plans to change its position on H-1Bs.
Last year, when Bill Gates appeared before Congress, BusinessWeek reported that Microsoft had received 959 visa petition approvals, roughly "one fifth as many as Infosys (Technologies, the top participant), while Intel got 369."
When it reported its quarterly earnings last week, Microsoft announced plans to fire about 5,000 employees. A spokesman said that some of the employees let go held H-1B visas but declined to get more specific.
Intel, which last week announced plans to close two plants in the U.S., similarly said that layoffs resulting from the economic slowdown would not factor into the company's H-1B plans.
I also have to include this line, which should be geek quote of the week:
technology companies are less keen on hiring hard-to-fill spots than on creating a cyber lumpenproletariat willing to work for cheaper wages
For more details on Tech companies demanding more foreign guest workers while they lay off thousands upon thousands of U.S. workers, see this blog post (with video).
Planned and Deliberate Strategy for non-American Workers
The company's "H1B plans". This tells you they have a concerted STRATEGY. It is not due to lack of high-tech American workers.
Cutting cost is always one
Cutting cost is always one of the topics that most companies are discussing these past few months. Recently, the Microsoft announced that they are going to cut an enormous number of their workforce if the recession deepens. And it seemed that it already happened. In addition, just like other companies or businesses, the Blender magazine decided to quit printing, and will switch to an entirely online format. It looks like short term loans couldn't help their decreased revenue enough and they are no longer able to avoid layoffs. The magazine joins numerous other journals and newspapers that will no longer be able to keep up with costs associated with printing and the number of staff required to keep a publication circulating. The number of online only publications has been exploding, and many people are predicting the death of the newspaper and the magazine within the next decade. Among the first casualties appears to be Blender magazine.