I know in my and my wife’s professions we are having a terrible time finding good candidates so we have positions opened for months at a time. Of course there have been the stacks and stacks of resumes from the MBA types with no experience other than thinking “manager” is a profession, but there have been very few qualified candidates.
In the case that I talked about, 5 years ago they were happy with hiring HS grads with "some" phone and people skills (read, show up on time and don't curse at customers).
The tight job market has bumped the bar (currently) up to MBA's or an equivalent. I'm sure it will correct back down again as job prospects improve; working the phones is a lousy job. Better than no job at all....but not very lucrative, or fun.
We recently went through the motions of hiring an entry level IT guy - everyone knew who was going to get the job, but we still needed to look at a few resumes and talk to a few people "for purposes of comparison". Whatever, top mgmt already had their guy tabbed, but I digress.... It still never ceases to amaze me the low standard that's set by entry level, or low-experience employees. Resumes that are barely literate, poor phone skills (don't take a phone interview from a sports bar!), poor interview skills (show up on time, wear a clean shirt, at least!).
I see an awful lot of people here on FR complaining about a lack of positions. From my own experience, I just need to wonder how much is talk, and how much is real. Good people are *hard* to find, always.