Yeah, but in real life scenarios, the difference in actual numbers, as opposed to percentages, matters.
Let's imagine that the split for all software shops is 80/20, with 80% being crappy, and 20% being decent. If there are 10 embedded software shops out there, it means there are only 2 decent embedded shops out there that an engineer can work at. Meanwhile, if there are 1000 non-embedded software shops, it means that there are 200 decent shops an engineer can work at.
This creates a wild disparity, even if the ratio of crappy to decent is exactly the same for all software shops in general.
The 20% decent shops are retaining their engineers and only growing at a sustainable rate. Available new jobs are filled with a referral since every employee is constantly bragging to their friends. So they post few / no new jobs online.
The 80% crappy shops are shedding employees (turnover) and also poorly managed so they fire everyone and rehire later. Only the worst employees decide to remain during such a purge. So most new posted jobs (more than 80%) are for such companies.
Then the 80% crappy companies talk about their issues finding staff and you get articles complaining how hard it is to find XYZ employees (interns, C++, even supermarket staff). But the real problem is the company in question, not the industry as a whole.
In real-life, engineers aren't just cogs in a wheel that are interchangeable, who can seek work in any organization. There is also a smaller number of people who can/want to do systems level/embedded programming.
Yes, I agree with you. Which is why I explained that despite the overall ratio of crappy/decent shops might be the same for all software work areas, embedded devs are the ones who get the short straw.
Let's imagine that the split for all software shops is 80/20, with 80% being crappy, and 20% being decent. If there are 10 embedded software shops out there, it means there are only 2 decent embedded shops out there that an engineer can work at. Meanwhile, if there are 1000 non-embedded software shops, it means that there are 200 decent shops an engineer can work at.
This creates a wild disparity, even if the ratio of crappy to decent is exactly the same for all software shops in general.