Well based on what you said, the claim that there is a "talent shortage" seems baseless, given that companies are unable to judge talent. I suppose the salarie

Well based on what you said, the claim that there is a "talent shortage" seems baseless, given that companies are unable to judge talent. I suppose the salaries of engineers are evidence enough that there is a talent shortage. Though, I've been perusing for a job and would not respond to maybe 85% of job postings because companies can't clearly articulate what they do and what the position they're offering is. I've been to plenty of interviews where they clearly haven't looked at my github, and then ask me odd, incredibly domain specific algorithm questions, and then turn me down as untalented. I've been to plenty of interviews where they think I'm talent, but in all their bragging about how talented their team is, I see signs of lazy engineers. I think your judgement of how small the hiring problem is is way off. Coupled with companies' unwillingness to hire and train mid-level engineers to senior level (which really only takes a few months with an interested candidate) is the bigger problem.