Here's the part I don't understand.
Everyone says what a bad job market there is today. Then I walk into places like Burger King, Petsmart and other fast food/retail "minimum wage" places and the employees I see could only kindly be described as barely passable. It looks like their personnel departments were scraping the bottom of the barrel for workers as if the economy was great and that was the best they could do.
If the job market comes down to a college-educated guy who is "overqualified" and somebody who has to wipe up their own drool every 20 minutes, why are employers choosing the droolers? Is it because the "overqualified" never even bother to apply?
Please tell me that you're only joking and that you actually do know that these managers want the 'droolers' cause they know that the droolers won't find a better job and leave the low paying job as soon as the market recovers ... like anyone with half a brain will do.
What you describe is the prevalent situation at all levels of corporate America. Twenty+ years of aggressive affirmative action has stacked the hiring and management positions with unqualified personnel who can't afford to hire competent employees, lest their own incompetence become too obvious.
On a similar note, others have pointed out that many of the tech recruiters and outsourcing specialists are ultra-liberal sorts who never had any business getting involved in the technical realm, and are bitter at those who were making a living at it.
Because the droolers will work for next to nothing, won't give them any trouble, won't look to better themselves and won't leave for something else if and when the economy picks up.
They don't won't good people. They just want someone who works cheap. All areas. All fields.