I think it is significantly more difficult to find programmers with domain expertise in the kinds of applications C++ is often used for than the language itself. There are quite a large number of good C++ programmers who have never worked anywhere close to the metal, OS, high-performance, etc, and those skills are often more difficult to learn and come by than the language.

A large amount of C++ development is still focused on enterprise and UI apps, even though one could argue that it is not the best language for that purpose.

that's a good question, I have yet to find a good beginner friendly modern c++ education material, be it a book or some course, that can make c++ learning simpler, to the point and enough to start to work with the language before diverting into those deep concepts.

Someone needs to write a c++ 101 book, followed by 201 and 301 for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users.

“C++ Crash Course” by Starch seems to be such a beginner’s book, can’t recommend it enough. Although, I was learning C++ mostly for hobby projects.

a good book indeed, hope it will have an updated version for c++20/23, which arguably is the most important release since c++11, new stuff such as ranges, std::span even concepts could be added now. I think this book is a bit tough for beginners though.

In short, no.

But then, it's hard to find good programmers for any language, so C++ isn't really any worse off here, and better off than some in that at least there's a bunch of candidates to pick from.

Seems like there's plenty, but a lot of em' are already gainfully employed by Google, MSFT, FB and co.

The good ones mostly leave those shops after a few years. Beware of anybody who looks back on them with fondness.