My co-worker's engagement was recently reduced due to lack of work matching his highly specific skills, so he's on the lookout for another project. He was told

My co-worker's engagement was recently reduced due to lack of work matching his highly specific skills, so he's on the lookout for another project. He was told by one of the recruiters that while there are offers for contractors such as us, it's the first time since time immemorial when they're actually considerably lower than the previous year. Don't know what to make of this - could be just a negotiation tactic but indeed the budget he was offered there was around 75% of what he had in his previous main thing(our project is technically his side gig). Meanwhile Google was on a hiring spree around here for the past few months, but the compensation offered is reportedly, ahem, uninspiring. Perhaps if enough companies do the same we'll be facing not a job shortage, but a well-paid job shortage. I think it's possible.