The law is being adhered to quite well. The law states that 65,000 new H-1B visas may be given per year, the 820,000 number obviously includes H-1B renewals as well. The application period for the fiscal year starting October 1, 2014 opened April 1st, and the cap (maximum number of accepted applications) was reached yesterday or the day before.
H-1B's are temporary work visas, 6 year maximum unless a green card application is also in process, and part of the employment based green card application does indeed require proving that there are no qualified US workers willing to work that job.
Sarah, maybe you should leave the legal interpretation to the lawyers rather than citing a "seminar" as your legal source.