"I think that's the problem. Everyone wants talented developers. Many companies can no longer afford to hire less talented developers who many have been able to

"I think that's the problem. Everyone wants talented developers. Many companies can no longer afford to hire less talented developers who many have been able to get a job in a booming economy." They're also trying to take advantage of the economic situation to lowball those talented developers -- many of whom are leaving the industry or starting their own companies, or in some cases (like me) both. Where I am now, we've hired a few folks that the tech team wasn't very keen on, because they were the least useless candidates we could find, not because they're talented. The media are conveniently ignoring the fact that a surprisingly large fraction of the people who are unable to find tech jobs weren't qualified for them in the first place, and only got hired because the employers were desperate. Unfortunately, the ones who were never qualified in the first place don't know that (or do but refuse to admit it), and the employers can't tell them apart anyway, so everyone ends up getting the short end of the stick.