[imtringued]

I don't even know why the term shortage is even used in the context of potential employees. If potential employees are scarce then salaries will continue to rise until more people decide to pursue that job. Generally shortages happen if the government decides to implement price controls. If I want to buy bananas for $2.50 and bananas sell for $5.00 in the grocery store. It's not a shortage just because I can't afford it. If the government decides that bananas should cost $2.50 then producers will stop producing their goods because of a lack of revenue. This is a shortage.

[3pt14159]

Though I agree with you in spirit, in practice there are such things as actual shortages. Petroleum engineers in countries that just discovered oil for the first time, for example. Some skills take almost a decade to acquire.

Web development does not generally fall under this umbrella, however.

[collyw]

Most apps are web based these days.

Knowing how to write a complex web app with decent structured maintainable clean code, keep it optimized and secure, the ability to deploy it to to servers at the touch of a button isn't something I would expect from a junior dev.

[3pt14159]

Of course not, but you can get there in a year or three.

[collyw]

I wouldn't expect it from a dev of 3 years either. There may be a few out there but its not the norm.

[fsloth]

"Some skills take almost a decade to acquire."

This. So very much this.

[jazzyk]

Depends on the area of Web development. "At least 5 years of experience in ReactJS required".

Software companies always look for people with the latest fad ^H^H^H skill, which is - almost by definition - in short supply.

[ci5er]

I agree with you philosophically, but what you are describing is a market clearing price. That is, regardless of the price, there are not infinite bananas. Even at one million dollars per pound, there is no way for us to allocate bananas that do not exist. At some point, at some price, people simply say: "well, I guess I want no bananas today".

When nominal demand far outstrips nominal supply, I think it's fair to call it a shortage. Temporary. It will correct. In a less than a decade.

It's funny - the management ego part that is in alignment with your comment (that "there is no shortage")... Because coders have become the modern blue-collar assembly line worker, management types often want to pay assembly line worker prices, and are having a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that these workers might make more money than they do. Outrageous!

[rubber_duck]

>If potential employees are scarce then salaries will continue to rise until more people decide to pursue that job.

This is already happening in areas where there is a shortage (salaries rising) and in the time it takes for new people to acquire the required skills there is a shortage (ie. people would be willing to accept the conditions below the market rate but they can't get trained fast enough/get visas)