American tech firms and advanced manufacturers have a new problem, a labor economist says: China and India want their workers.

Edward E. Gordon, author of Winning the Global Talent Showdown and seven other books about jobs and looming shortages of skilled workers here and abroad, says the United States can't count anymore on importing foreign talent to make up for shortages here. Instead, he says, China and India, who face growing shortages of their own, are competing for those workers.