I'm not sure if there is actually a labor shortage

I remember in my city back in the early 2000s when the entire administration sector almost collapsed (both public and private) and it was because the minimum required experience was 4-5 years in immediately relevant companies across the board.

People retired, nobody could replace them...more people retired...nobody could replace them etc etc, just a constant circle down for 15-20 years until companies were actively closing down because they didn't have enough staff and couldn't get enough people willing to relocate into the city.

I'd like to say things improved but not really. Now it averages 2 years

Tell me about it, I find it very unreasonable for companies to not give the inexperienced a chance to work. It may be one thing if a company requires experience for a higher level job such as an executive position at a bank or a pastry chef at a Michelin star restaurant but these days companies require years of experience for some of the most menial entry-level jobs as if someone who doesn't have 5+ years of experience and a PhD is gonna f**k up something as menial as manning the cash register. People like to blame younger people for "being lazy" for the labor shortage but when companies refuse to hire people who are in fact willing to work for them just for having years of experience for every menial task then no wonder there's a labor shortage. Another big problem with requiring experience for every job is that if you require experience for every job and refuse to hire anyone who doesn't have experience in the first place then how are you gonna be able to hire an experienced employee then?

In regards to work experience, secret is to just lie.
I just walked around the town, found the stores that closed but still had the store name up, then said
'yeah I worked there. I left because it closed down'
and then I faked a relevant email address for the company as a reference.
I filled up 6 years of work experience with just that alone.
Also faking qualifications -- I just said I had them and faked my highschool grades because it was unlikely anyone was going to check (they never did)

Another one is volunteering at 2 or 3 charity stores because you'll get a reference and it classifies as retail.

Now as to why the problem started (I'm old enough before it happened so I have a point of reference...)
college and mass immigration played a major part because suddenly most people had a college degree, work experience or they could just wait for someone anywhere in the world to show up with it.
Effectively mass-college made a degree the minimum requirement and mass immigration put us in competition with theoretical people who may one day show up
As a result : Companies can be picky, they don't need to train people and we end up in this bizarre situation where a college degree is a requirement BUT because so many people have them, it doesn't guarantee to accomplish anything.

Supply and demand unfortunately - More workers available = lower work standards
More people with qualifications = higher minimum expectations

All the businesses that had "now hiring" signs in the past 2 years were lying; they got drowned in resumes and ended up hiring nobody. Old people got laid off during lockdowns or because "diversity" companies are going bankrupt, and then took jobs that Gen Z could've had.