It might be depressed but it's still an incredible job market. I just don't see it suppressed by immigration. In Seattle there are thousands of open jobs. My startup can't get people to even interview and we pay new bs cs grads 130k. fang pays more. We have 50 devs and want to hire 10. When I worked at Microsoft my division often had 3000 openings.
I've interviewed in a different city and been willing to relocate there. I don't have a lot of roots here besides family (who honestly probably love that I get out of the state) and this isn't a great ___location to begin with.
I can't be the only decent developer fitting those criteria - I'm sure some new grads or even mid-levels might be open to moving.
Or is your "shortage" actually a "shortage of people we deem suitable for this position and already live here" and not a general tech shortage?
I have seen wages go up pretty steadily since I moved here 25 years ago and started at Microsoft. I've worked at 6 companies now, through the 2000 .com crash and the 2008 crash. Both times some smaller companies didn't make it, partly because they didn't get new funding, but most jobs, salaries, etc kept up or didn't fall much. I know I've been fortunate but I'm nothing special, just a dev in seattle. I think you must be in a town without so much varied software jobs. I feel for you, and would be unhappy if I had the overtime demands you mention. That's just a very different world than I experience here.
What if we all don't want to live in Seattle or be told what do do by some PM with a physics degree from fill in the blank who never had to grind out code themselves?
