Where have all the workers gone?

Sign of the times: "One Hundred Thirty-Three Thousand H-1B Visa Applications Submitted In Two Days." The cover story of Information Week is picking up on a phenomenon whose meaning many are pondering.

It refers to the news that, within the first 2 days of allowing applications, the quota for the year was exceeded by 50%. Tech employers are clamoring for visa reform to enable them to hire the offshore talent they want at the price they want to pay.

Anecdotal evidence muddies the water. At Easter dinner, an engineering consultant working on innovative energy technologies said that his company can't find enough quality engineers to hire. On "On Point," an NPR call-in show devoted to this topic, both an engineer and a tech manager called in to say that, even after tech hiring picked up, they experienced age discrimination and difficulty getting a job. A social sciences professional who is a foreign national was dismayed because she wants to stay in the US but will be subject to a visa lottery, her future determined by chance. An American in an evening MBA program is in a class full of visa holders and feels greatly enriched by their participation.

It's a confusing picture. Does it mean that there is a serious shortage of US born-and-bred tech talent? That our schools are failing to prepare students for the innovation economy? That the schools are doing fine, but young people don't go into technology because they are being told by their relatives and friends that they won't have job security or jobs at all? That some of the dominant companies who request these visas (Wipro, Infosys, etc.) are only looking for a way to get cheap labor stateside, train folks, and then send them back to power other counties' economies?

What has been your experience? How will the US stay at the forefront of innovation? What will be the face of US tech employment in 10 years?