One problem is employers usually want "x years of experience" in some fairly specific set of tools, which immediately excludes graduates and entry level jobs for them seem to be few and far between. Few are willing to invest in training people as this gives them the "x years of experience", the fear seems to be they'll leave and go to a better paid job rather than be loyal to the company that looked after them, which for me says more about the company than the employee.
Then somewhere between the ages of 35 to 40 IT guys start becoming unemployable for some reason that escapes me, I know IT guys in their 60's who are incredibly productive, can problem solve better than most but can't get a job because they're supposed to be burnt out by that age, they tend to start their own companies or leave the industry altogether.
So employers seem to chase people who are already employed and are between 25 to 35 years old, graduates and older people rarely get a look in.
Maybe they could try relaxing their age and experience parameters a little, maybe they could try training graduates in the required skill sets, maybe they could try hiring the older people.
Then maybe they could stop whining about skills shortages that they are actively creating.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
