Or he works in a technologically conservative area that is slow to adopt new trends, even useful ones. Take a look at the HN Who is Hiring threads over the pas

Or he works in a technologically conservative area that is slow to adopt new trends, even useful ones. Take a look at the HN Who is Hiring threads over the past 2 years, and count up the total remote jobs. It's increasing at an impressive rate. Companies are discovering that they can still hire talented developers for average salaries (particularly those devs living in economically depressed areas). There are thousands of devs who don't have the option to up and move to N. California or NYC. Some of them are very talented. It's not hard to figure out, and I'm sure the same dynamics are at work in Europe.