The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an overall increase in jobs created in April, although IT-related employment appeared to be down slightly.The report won’t resolve the debate currently raging over efforts to allow more foreign technology workers to enter the U.S. with H-IB visas. (See InfoWorld’s special report this week).Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 274,000 over the month, with job growth in construction, mining, and several service-providing industries, the bureau said. The information industry added 12,000 jobs over the month. Within information, the motion picture and sound recording industries gained 9,000 jobs. A closer look at IT categories within the information industry category also shows a stable or slightly sagging job picture in some areas. For employment with ISPs, search portals, and data processing, employment in April reached 392,000, down from 392,800 in March and 392,600 in February.For other information services, 50,300 were employed in April, down from 50,700 in March and 50,900 in February. An interesting insight on demand for foreign workers comes from Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and markets for Yoh, a talent and business process outsourcing services company focusing on technology and emerging markets. His company is not engaged in offshore outsourcing. Lanzalotto said his company is seeing strong demand for jobs helping companies implement ERP applications. IT security-related employment is also robust he said.Demand for foreign workers, he said, reflects overall demand for contract labor, which he said has reached two percent of overall employment. But why are there so many unemployed, highly-educated engineers looking for work?“This issue arises because of the nature of the technology (market), where people who are well-skilled, may find those skills are becoming commoditized,” Lanzalotto. “For example, think of Web designers three or four years ago. They are not as much in demand as they once were.” Technology Industry