That has nothing to do with a shortage of engineers. There are plenty of engineers, just none that are willing to work for 70k a year.

There is a salary divide between what big companies can pay, and what little companies can pay. That's drawing a significant portion of the talent away from the smaller labor market.

Either the smaller companies need to consider hiring more junior engineers (of which there are plenty). Or they need to make their offers more attractive.

Or we recognize that steering more students towards programming is good both for their career and the economy. It is only people who wants developers to stay better paid than other similar fields who thinks that it isn't a shortage.

Based on my last job search, smaller companies just aren't paying salaries that are going to attract well rounded full stack engineers.

The reason software engineering pay so much better than similar fields is since there is a lack of software engineers. Encouraging people to pick that option in order to lower wages to similar levels as other fields makes perfect sense, don't you agree?

Having a hard time finding employees does not necessarily mean there is a shortage of employees. There are two sides to this market. What are the companies doing right who are successfully finding people? How much are they offering in compensation?