Depends on the situation. My comment was over time. I've hired in recessions where there were many people looking. I've hired in good times where few people were looking. Right now my industry is going through hard times, so if somebody finds a new job I probably will not be allowed to hire a replacement.
I'm hiring for an established team. The team can teach you what you need to know so long as you are "smart and get things done" (Joel on Software) If there is only one or two people experience matters more because there are not experts to help you learn what you need to know. Even on my team we can teach you, but if we don't have to that is better yet. If my team suddenly needed to write Java - none of us know Java and so probably would limit our search to Java experts - someone to teach us.
There are also cases where there is a shortage of people willing to work for less than the market wage.
There are cases where one city has a lot of jobs, but the next city a few hundred miles away doesn't. In theory people can move to a new city but that has enough personal implications that people often will not.
