They pay lip service to free market ideals when it's beneficial to do so, but as soon as the free market means they need to pay more for labor, well, they offshore what they can and then complain of a skills gap or a labor gap.
It's actually just a "5 years experience university educated and willing to work for peanuts" shortage.
A lot of these companies are liars masquerading as if they can't find people. There are people who are applying, but HR is choosier than most even in the CS field. I really don't get it. Also, many factories do shady garbage where you go through temp-to-hire agencies, promising getting hired on after 90-120 days, then hold you on the leash for 12 months and not hire you.
All these companies can suck it. They absolutely deserve the "shortage" they've created. Most people end up wanting to go to retail or get a degree because they're sick of being treated like a literal personal labor slave who honestly is more likely to be fired on a whim than the average office worker. General labor working conditions are at rock bottom. We traded excessive safety for being treated like robots. Ever tried talking to someone for fun at a factory full of temp-to-hires? You don't exactly get to know anybody. So the system is devised to treat you as a robot. If robot-38273 does not perform, decommission them and get a new robot.
CS field has been famously short on labour for decades. Wouldn't we expect them to be less choosy?
That is the level of pettiness general labor jobs are at. I've had several interviews and never had a drug addiction, willing to work for damn peanuts and they still wouldn't give me a job. I'm not saying I was a perfect candidate, but for real, getting a general labor was way harder than it was to do white collar jobs. Companies just don't hire anybody at those salaries. Then they complain when they only get people who can't pass a drug test. Yeah cause they quite literally are the only people in the world willing to put up with your BS as an employer right now.
Or the best part, these companies are in garbage cities nobody wants to live in anymore. I'm sorry, but a single walmart and 5 fast food restaurants does not make a desirable place to live.
And my point was that companies hiring programmers put up with much more bullshit from the likes of me, because they have to, if they want to hire enough people.
Programmers are coddled.
I have never had to do a drug test for work (though I never worked in the US). And most of people in software that I know would avoid places where they would have to take a drug test, just out of general principle. (Unless the money was really good, of course.)
Workers in most other industries have it much, much harder. Just as you describe!
An economy in which there are a large number of job openings, with fair pay, that are in such legitimate demand that they offer training and other incentives, AND receive a sufficient number of capable applicants, yet never end up being filled.
It’s not that the positions aren’t really needed, or that the job listings are an excuse to hire cheaper, less qualified labor. The jobs just go unfulfilled, and actual business opportunities get left behind.
I don’t get it, but it’s a real phenomenon that doesn’t get enough attention.
The companies advertising the job then use those as leverage to hire an overseas candidate (immigration backdoor). The company always cry labour shortage and dismiss local candidates.
In the scam, the company brings a foreigner on a special visa (usually highly skilled visa, candidate may not have those skills but no matter). The company pays they foreigner the high salary with the condition that the immigrant pay the money back under the table (and don't talk).
In some cases the jobs advertised are not real. They are a front, once the foreign candidate arrives, they are assigned work in a completely different low skilled job for their employer (but have a fancy job title) and are happy to do that for a long game shot at residency.
That's the beauty of a free market: it works even if the participants don't support it. Competition forces people to do the Right Thing.
Alas, enough people need to support free markets politically, otherwise it gets eroded over time.
Actually, that's the beauty of a well-regulated market.
Entrenched monopolies don't compete; they collude. See for example the Canadian telecom market which is under-regulated and thoroughly corrupt.
It's really hard to keep up a monopoly without legal protection.