Supply vs Demand - Software Engineer Shortage

A colleague of mine approached me about a month and a half ago because she was looking for a programmer to do some work - temporary summer position - setting up a Wiki, and customizing it.

At first, I was interested in the job, but after looking at my options and current status, I had to turn it down. From that point onwards, I started looking for friends I knew from university that could fill the position. I asked a handful of close friends first, and they all had jobs lined up for the summer, I started asking acquaintances that I had interacted with, but not necessarily worked with them directly, and most of them had temporary or full time offerings. I was having a hard time finding people who were unemployed in Software Engineering. 

Given the extremely low unemployment rate in Canada (currently at 6.0% - April 2008 - Stats Canada)this shouldn't not have been a surprise. This was not the case 2 years ago when I was schedule to graduate (that is another story, another blog post). I was scared that after I graduated, I wouldn't be able to find a decent job. I didn't want to go back to dishwashing at restaurants.

I guess the years are good, and we are not in a recession as many newspapers had predicted *fingers crossed*, so earn the money you can, and save, save, save - for a rainy day.