At this point there is no way any software company could justify, legally, hiring someone on an H1B. There are some 40k layoffs in last few months and certainly a large number of those are US citizens. Any company claiming that they can’t find a US citizen with the right skills is lying.
The Visa situation is very bad , but technically for better or worse it’s how the system was designed to work. H1Bs are meant to supplement the domestic supply of certain skills to meet demand. If demand drops (or as is happening with now supply increases) then it becomes hard to justify why one needs to hire an H1B over say someone already eligible for employment. Companies always game the system but it’s going to very hard to suggest one can’t find any SDEs at this point.
On the above I would correct that it’s not “US Citizen” but someone with full employment eligibility, which could be for example a Green Card holder.
As much as I tend to "defend" Europes social systems, when it comes to visas there are some similarities. True, once you are eligible for unemployment benefits in Germany, you can extend you residence title for that period. And then, being herw long enough even more. In case you are not eligible yet, well, things are different. I have quite a few collegues that might face that prospect sooner than they like, and of course the employer is not talking about this, nor are my co-workers necessarily aware of that. Kind of makes me angry with my emoloyer, in my book you do not screw around with peoples lives like that.
One thing that would be quite reasonable is a longer Visa grace period after losing a job. I don't see what harm this would do. The Visa grace period is currently 50% shorter than a tourist visa to give context.
I didn't find IT-specific stats to be fully sure (well it's somewhere on https://www.bls.gov if you're so inclined), but I'd be surprised if the IT industry were much worse (if at all) than the average over all industries.
The lie is that they can't find someone with the skills
The truth is that they can't find someone with the skills who will work like a pittance and who will worry about being deported if they leave/get fired.
