Is the nursing shortage suddenly over? Have RNs clutching their newly minted licenses overrun the healthcare system to such a degree that no one is hiring anymore? Have we reached the point where it is no longer politically correct to say to nurses and would-be nurses, “You’ll always have a job?”

But there’s been a lot of chitchat that new grads are having trouble finding work, especially in northern California, NYC, Boston, and New Jersey. There have been scattered news stories about layoffs in Tuscon, AZ and the Philly area. Some new nurses have reported that not only can’t they find a job, but they can’t even get an interview. Many have been searching for several months.

Is this an instant replay of the early-mid 1990s?