Developer Shortage Debate

We're currently trying to hire one or two people in Aalborg, Denmark. Getting anyone with skills beyond C# or Java for a smallish company is next to impossible. We're looking for Python and/or Javascript skills, preferably working knowledge of Unix. We've gotten may one real application, it's strikes me as a bit strange, I would have loved to have had open positions like ours when I graduated.An open position in bookkeeping or warehousing however will get us 300+ app

maybe a lack of good developers for the salary they are offering...

Supply of wannabe developers is quite high.

I take it you've never tried to hire experienced software engineers. The supply is significantly below demand.

You aren't getting what I'm trying to say - the market for competent 9-5 is also missing developers - it's not that there aren't any - it's that demand > supply - which is why OP is worried about his employees leaving - it's not like he can go out there with a job posting and have 5 competent applicants in a week. You will have to pay recruiters serious money and hope to get lucky on competent leads - so "there are plenty" argument is BS.

There really isn't a developer shortage - just a shortage of developers willing to work for below market compensation.

LOL. There is so much "demand" for technically skilled people, yet try finding a job as an entry level dev in this market.. employers reject people left right and center for the tiniest of reasons. They want to take 0 risk of hiring someone who doesn't already have every skill they need, 0 risk of hiring someone who has made mistakes in their career, 5 leetcode rounds, 5 references, 3 past internships, 5 github projects and the list goes on. Anyone recently graduating from CS will

The need for talented developers has vastly outpaced the supply. The bar has to be lowered to include a wider pool of people. There is currently no other solution for businesses.The unfortunate side effect is that capable developers aren’t usually interested in solving simple problems inefficiently. So you won’t find them applying to your jobs.

Why are there so many devs seeking work? Scary.

There's no shortage of talent. If there was a shortage we would see real indicators of a shortage like increasing average salaries across the field, training programs, etc.Instead employers consistently use bullshit to filter, puzzles without any relation to the job, etc in their hiring. That's a strong indicator that there's no shortage. If employers are making up things to filter candidates, then they have too many options.If I had to guess, this is probably just more prop