Falisha McGee came to Bradley University on Thursday seeking
employment at the daylong job fair.

McGee, 24, graduated from Bradley in May with a degree in computer
information systems. Like others in the information technology industry,
she's spent months looking for a job.

"I did internships for every one of my four years," said McGee, whose last
internship was with Caterpillar Inc. She also was president of the National
Society of Black Engineers at Bradley.

McGee says she'd travel as far as necessary for a decent-paying job in her
field. But the jobs are not out there.

And now the unemployment rate for people like McGee is three times what it
was just two years ago.

The shrinkage of the Illinois manufacturing economy of the 1970s and 1980s
could be happening all over again, this time in the highly educated,
well-paid, white-collar information technology field. And the competition
comes not from Japan but India.

This trend is so new that no agency has tracked what may be flat - or even
negative - growth in job prospects for software programmers and engineers
in Illinois. But the anecdotal evidence is compelling.
. . .
The H-1B factor

When the Internet took technology businesses to unprecedented heights and
the economy heated up, American employers were frustrated by their
inability to expand without trained manpower.

Businesses sought government help. In 1998, the federal government expanded
its visa program, called H-1B after the section of immigration law
governing it, to allow employers to hire a limited number of foreign,
highly skilled workers for temporary jobs.

In 2000, 115,000 foreign workers - mainly in technical fields - were
allowed to work in the United States for three years. That expanded to
195,000 visas a year over the next three years. In 2004, the number will
revert to the pre-'98 level at 65,000 a year and the entry of foreign IT
professionals flooding the market may resolve itself.

Illinois is not immune from the impact of the H-1B visa program and the
burgeoning Indian software industry.

With 52,781 imported workers, Illinois ranks seventh in the nation in
hiring H-1B workers, many of whom are right here in central Illinois.

According to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, of the
1,544 H-1B visa holders who took jobs in Peoria last year, 1,310 work in IT
and engineering. The majority hail from India.

Illinois-based corporations such as Caterpillar Inc., State Farm Insurance
and Deere & Co. spoke in general terms about how many visa workers they've
hired or how much information technology outsourcing they engage in.

Caterpillar spokeswoman Lori Porter said the company payroll includes 2,000
people in IT fields at Caterpillar locations locally and around the world.

"We recruit and hire new IT employees from a broad base of colleges and
universities. Among the key source schools in Illinois are Bradley,
Illinois State and the University of Illinois," Porter said. "Our IT work
force naturally reflects the fact that Caterpillar is a global company."

"Caterpillar does contract work with IT firms in India and with firms in
other international locations," she said. "But in these places, Caterpillar
employees usually function as the project manager, and the resulting
solutions are generally implemented by Cat IT employees."

State Farm spokeswoman Ana Compain-Romero said the company has been able to
find all of the qualified staff it needs in the United States.

"We presume there are some external associates (not employed by State Farm)
who may be here on H-1B, but their consulting company would have that
information, and that's not information we're required to ask of the
company," she said.

Deere & Co. turned to outside development staff to augment its own IT
staffs, but not because there was a quality problem, said spokesman Ken Golden.

"Increased use of outside staff allows for more flexibility in staffing IT
projects since the workers do not become permanent employees," he said,
adding that Deere outsources less than 10 percent of its development work.

High-tech company Motorola Inc., based in Schaumburg, is planning to cut
7,000 employees but doesn't say specifically if any of its IT work is going
or has gone to India.

"Approximately 6 percent of our total U.S. professional population is in
H-1B status," said Motorola spokeswoman Anne Stuessy. "We outsource
software development and projects for a number of reasons beyond economic
considerations. . . . It makes sense to develop software interfaces and
handwriting recognition for the Chinese market in China."

One of Illinois' largest sources of information technology employees from
India is Satyam Computer Services, based in India, which acknowledges
Caterpillar and Deere among its clients. Satyam declined comment.

A proponent of the H-1B program is U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria. LaHood
said the pullback in engineering and the infotech industry is more of a
problem in California and other places with a higher concentration of
high-tech industries.

"I don't think it's a problem around here, "LaHood said. "I don't know
about Illinois. I know about the 20 counties that I represent, and I think
(if it were a problem) I would have heard about it."