Just read an article in a local Austrian newspaper, telling that local companies are unable to find good developers and programmers. There are currently 22% more open job positions in this area compared to last year, and even back then lots of positions were not be able to be filled. I'm not surprised at all.

The problem IMO is that companies are not willing to pay enough for developers and programmers. In Austria, an entry level programmer with high level university training will usually get offered 2200 Euro gross. I'm not kidding. Wake up, people: Are you serious? You want highly specialized people with actual skills, and expect them to be OK with that comparable low payment? If the same person sits down and starts creating his own software, he will probably earn much more one year later by himself already. Why on fucking earth should he start as programmer probably even without prospect of a promotion in your company then? Why should he even consider to work as programmer? He would be better off working as team manager, project lead or similar, blabbering in meetings with all the other people, not doing actual work. But at least he would be paid there probably even twice as good.

I've heard the situation is similar in other countries, although I don't think programmers are seen comparable worthless in many other countries :) ...