The “tight labor market” is not the issue.
You can hire all the dregs you want.
What is “tight” is highly skilled specialized skills.
Those workers can their own shots.
Especially over the last few years as Baby Boomers have retired in droves. It was tough as a Gen Xer with the massive Baby Boomer overhang. There was always a massive cohort who were always going to have 10-15 years more experience than we did. We could never catch up with that...but now that they're getting thinned out by retirement, suddenly things are so much easier.
There aren't a whole lot of millenials behind us who have been slogging along like we did racking up years and years of the kind of experience companies and banks want. So.....meet my terms or I'll just work for your competitors instead. I know you cannot easily find people who have the degrees and the decades of experience you want for this job."
This is a wonderful role reversal from the Great Recession when I was the one taking it in the shorts. I love the free market now.