We have had some trouble on a recent round of recruiting for repair techs, too. A lot of people from general technical backgrounds (metalworkers, welders, electricians, fitters etc) but, again, not a lot of relevent electronics experience. Unfortunately, we're not geared up to pay the sort of wages that a formally qualified and expereinced "Engineer" (with a capital E) would expect. We did take on a fresh EE graduate, though, who has proved to be very good.
We did, eventually, find an experienced repair technician with good skills - but failed to keep him! He left after a couple of months... perhaps it was me?
On a brighter note we took on at the same time a young chap to specialise in software support who, despite apparently not having a massive grounding in electronics, has an increduble knack for fixing things (his previous work was in consumer electronics repair, phones, laptops etc).
I'm sure there must be good tinkerers out there (we're always hearing how hobby electronics is on the up), they're probably just not the kind of people who are easy to find.