[simonbrown]

> try telling that to anyone who has tried to hire developers in the past three years. Sure, much great talent is out there – but the supply and demand balance is off the scale.

Really? Computer science has the highest unemployment rate of all degrees in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10477551

[apexauk]

Yes, really. That's an interesting link, thanks. But to be honest, I don't find the stat surprising. I spent a term studying CS at Surrey in 2004 - I couldn't immediately find the 2004 rankings but it ranked 8th for CS in 2008:

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/ra...

That first term consisted of multiple choice exams in C and HTML, where one of the questions didn't have a correct answer.

In short, I sadly don't think that any lines can be drawn between 17% unemployment of CS graduates and a supply of great available talent.

Speaking as someone who's processed 200+ applications and hired 7 engineers in London the past 2 years, sharing stories with my colleagues at other companies - great talent is very hard to find.

[sliverstorm]

Given those data points, the logical conclusion is that the article means the supply and demand balance of talented computer scientists is off the scale, and that the reason the field has the highest unemployment is because it is saturated with individuals lacking sufficient talent.

It seems kind of cold, hearing myself say this, but before concluding the article is 'wrong', I'm inclined to explore possible alternative interpretations.