It's interesting that this is sort of self perpetuating, though. I was looking for python developers (I sort of still am; Python + NLP), and literally nothing promising came by. Part of that was being located in Scotland, but still. I changed the job ad to Python + Java and got a ton of recruitment agency spam as I had clearly hit some kind of programming-drone buzzword (not one of the candidates foisted unconsentingly on me looked remotely interesting). As a result I wouldn't hire for either skill again - as other posters in this thread have alluded to, it's more about general ability than specific Python experience, especially as Python isn't too challenging to pick up.