You'll get various input on the state of jobs and hiring from recruiters. In my experience, two have been fairly common over the last few years.
One is that it's a buyer's market and employers can be afford to be picky, and they have been.
Two, that employers are being increasingly specific. They are looking for the candidate in the middle, a mirror image of the bullet points in the job description. But as a result of the specificity, in aggregate, candidates are moving towards the further ends of the spectrum in terms of experience. The perfect candidate in the middle becomes rarer over time, because that candidate is either racking up years of experience or doesn't have many.
Two things have stuck out to me that are interesting trends. One is that I've seen a number of the same jobs posted for a year or more. Secondly is that the requirements seem to be increasing for the same jobs (that could be selective memory from my own experience; I would suggest you refer to your own experience).
If that's true, then a the hiring economy would be in a bit of a self-reinforcing loop, a bifurcation of qualifications and experience that make it harder to find someone in the middle.
This is a thought in progress, not even quite yet an opinion, that came to mind. Will think on it if time permits.
