Indeed. Whenever i hear of "labour shortage", I'm immediately reminded of the "show! Me! The money!" clip of Jerry Maguire.
There's no labour shortage. There's a lack of currently available labour for the terms you're offering.
Edit: and perhaps some folks who should not be considered as on the labour market, but are labelled unemployed nevertheless.
Do you recall when the pandemic started I think it was the state of Illinois blamed their inability to process employment checks on a lack of COBOL programmers?
It was a really interesting statement. As you say-- blaming people who don't exist for their failure to maintain their systems or create a training program/incentives to ensure that there's a supply of programmers.
I'm sure if it payed well, someone would learn COBOL.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-cobol-pr...