The federal government took action against IT talent on Oct.7, suspending Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Capgemini from the Permanent Labor Certification Program.
As reported in HR Drive, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said DOL also suspended Microsoft and Adobe from a program that allows companies to hire foreign workers for employment in the U.S.
“I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world,” Sonderling said during a press briefing. “Due to multiple active federal investigations, the Department of Labor is suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program. … We will not accept any new or process any pending Permanent Labor Certification Program applications involving these companies.”
Vice President JD Vance took aim at Microsoft, claiming the company laid off 6,000 workers last year while gaining federal approval for 6,000 H-1B temporary work visas and filing 3,682 Permanent Labor Certification Program applications. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vance said.
DOL’s suspensions target IT services firms and software vendors that are prime movers in the artificial intelligence economy, building large practices around adoption of the technology. As organizations fire up AI assistants and autonomous agents, there are looming concerns of workforce cuts in software development, IT help desk roles and other technical positions.
While the tech unemployment rate remained almost a full percentage point below the national average of 4.2 percent in September, HR Drive reported that roles in the technology sector lost more than 10,000 positions compared with the prior month, according to a CompTIA analysis of labor data. Signals remained mixed, as CompTIA saw active job postings for IT professionals rise to a three-year high, adding more than 272,000 open roles.
Another encouraging sign on the tech workforce front is the rush to embed AI engineers inside organizations grappling with AI deployment challenges. Microsoft in July pledged to send 6,000 forward-deployed engineers into the field as part of a $2.5 billion investment in a newly formed AI enablement company called Microsoft Frontier Co.
Microsoft responded to Vance’s claims in a statement it published, saying the company looked forward to providing the Trump administration with additional details and noted that 80 percent of the approximate 6,000 H-1B visa applications submitted during its past fiscal year were “to extend or change the status” of existing employees, not hire new workers.
“Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category,” the company said. “We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings.”
