The pandemic has also made moonlighting more universal and more people looking for remote/part-time/fractional work.

These are all lumped together here, but they aren't the same things. Moonlighting is something you do in addition to your current job. Part time is less than 40 hours a week for most. Fractional I assume is gig or short term contracting work. The last one is remote. Plenty of people work remotely full time, but all of the other labor commitments can be done remotely as well. How are you seeing these individual items break down and overlap?

Are you able to offer remote full time positions? If not, I think that's likely to put you at a disadvantage moving forward if other companies you are competing against in the candidate pool can offer remote work.

Inbound applications are down and convincing experienced folks to switch jobs has become harder than ever.

Are you working with any recruiters or are you mainly relying on job postings to attract candidates? As a candidate I frequently prefer to work with a recruiter because they help remove uncertainty around dropping an application into a black box and hoping someone replies back. It also takes me out of the loop of dealing with any form of applicant tracking system or really doing anything more than just giving the recruiter a copy of my resume. Is it possible that your application process is turning away potential candidates due to too many hoops to jump through?

On the flip side, I wonder how folks looking for full-time roles are faring.

I'm not looking for new work, but I have recruiters and hiring managers reaching out to me very frequently at the moment. I want to be polite and not ignore anyone. However, it is currently hard to do with the volume I am seeing.

The reason I am not looking for work is that I am not dissatisfied. As others have pointed out in this thread, the hiring process is frankly arduous. In the last two years I have done quite a few interviews and my level of dissatisfaction will need to be very high for me to consider going through any of it again. As a candidate the interview process for tech roles is frustrating because it is so time consuming. Day to day, I really don't do much fancy algorithm work. It isn't something I'm particularly fascinated by either. As a result, finding a new job usually involves spending my free time brushing up on the subject. This takes time from things I'd rather be doing. Some employers offer take home exercises that are intended to focus on practical application of day to day skills, but these are no better because they still require a lot of time.

The discussion around hiring in tech is practically at a stalemate. No one can agree on anything other than the process not being very enjoyable. Unfortunately I don't have any meaningful insights to contribute here except if you can identify an interview process that isn't a hassle for candidates but still delivers whatever assurances you need that a candidate is capable of doing the job, you can probably increase your applicant pool.

I think there is plenty that can be done to address the hiring issues you are seeing. Make sure you can offer the perks candidates want like remote work. Make the application process easy, nothing more than a resume and maybe a cover letter. Make the interview process painless and advertise it.