Finding good engineers is generally hard and competitive. But I don’t know why I am getting the feeling that finding front end engineers is even harder.
Few signs to this is the time it takes to fill front end positions vs back end even that front end positions are generally less. Another sign I see is some companies increasing employees referral bonuses for front end positions than back end.
I think part of this problem is that students are generally taught that back end is the real engineering, while front end is a work of designers.
I don’t know what other reasons might lead to this and I am not sure if the industry should work actively to close this gap. I am just writing this as food for thought.