a lot of bright, industrious, creative US STEM workers unemployed
Yes, there are a lot of bright, industrious, creative US STEM workers unemployed and under-employed... and many have been so for years on end since the advent of H-1B.
There are US citizens with genius IQs and master's degrees teaching occasional classes at the extension campus... to the guest-workers.
There are US citizens with genius IQs and PhDs who are teaching occasional courses at the local junior college because it's the best job they've been able to land.
There are US citizens with PhDs who are on their third post-doc research post (right through the peak Nobel prize work years without a chance to embark on their own research) because no one wants to hire tenure-track.
There are gifted former software product developers who get only occasional tutoring or private consulting gigs.
There are tens of thousands of experienced US STEM workers sending out their resumes every week into the black-hole data-bases of what formerly were employment agencies and are now primarily bodyshops.
What I'm not seeing, anymore, are competent, active head-hunters who reach out to present top talent to hiring managers. (Meanwhile, Challenger, disconnected from reality, keeps babbling that people who are destitute should jaunt across the country to "network" on the speculation that some one of these trips might work.)
From 2010-05-20: Google gets more than 3K applications per day, over 90K applications per month, 1.09M per year.
2010-05-22: Joyce Boyle of Hoveroud "said, 'I was getting in excess of 150 resumes daily.' Now, Boyle estimates she gets 50-60 resumes a day" (about 1200/month) at an outfit that makes those scooters for the elderly and infirm.
From 2008-12-23: Northrup Grumman was getting 30K resumes per week.
From 2010-07-01: Shana Westerman of Sapphire Technologies screens, on average, 300 resumes per day (about 6K per month).
From 2010-12-24: AT&T is getting about 50K applications per month, and hires about 1 out of 30.
