As someone else in this thread pointed out - being contacted doesn't mean anything comes from it.

It's EXTREMELY easy for recruiters to spam out messages. Since they're payed based on hires, it's a numbers game for them. Get as many people into the interview as possible.

How many of those interviews actually result in jobs? That's the important question. As this very post shows, there is a clear disconnect: HIRING is much less common than INTERVIEWING.

Sure, I agree with all of that. But spamming has to have a certain level of return in order to do it. There must be a tangible level of demand out there. Like I said in my first post, when I talk to people in other industries (medical, journalism, electrical engineering, etc), getting spammed by recruiters is utterly unheard of.

I only have anecdotal evidence, but so does every one else in this thread. Personally I have been receiving emails from the same recruiters in some instances for years. I'm not a stand out developer. I also know, again anecdotally, that when we open a developer rec at my current company, it can take a very long time to fill.

My gut says there is a shortage. How much of one is very hard to determine and how artificial the shortage is due to generally poor hiring practices, low salaries, or other factors is also hard to determine. But I find it very hard to swallow the idea there is no developer shortage at all, which is what sparked this thread.

Job reqs kept open but not filled, as mentioned up thread. Recruiters chasing an elusive paycheck just like candidates.

That doesn’t add up to me. In my experience a lot of the recruiting comes from engineering managers, the CTO, CEO etc of the company.

On top of that, this recruiting has been at a fevered pitch for at least 4 or 5 years. If it was as unfruitful as you claim, I’d expect the recruiters to have learned that by now.

Spam is known to be a numbers game, don’t know what else to add.

Then I come away unconvinced. I just can't imagine recruiters are going to spend all this time making such little money. People naturally gravitate to where the demand is.

Just because they're being contacted doesn't mean job offers actually come out of it