I think part of the &quot;shortage&quot; is also that companies are looking for good engineers at a price _they_ are willing to pay, not what the market is necessarily asking for, which is why they have to reject a whole swath of higher quality candidates saying they&#x27;re too senior.<p>I know a lot of good engineers that just become contractors because that&#x27;s the only way to transcend the market salaries for programmer employees. There are a half dozen jobs I&#x27;d love to apply for but the salaries just don&#x27;t match what I make as a contractor (even taking many benefits into account).