I know many new college grads who got offers from multiple tier-1 and tier-2 silicon valley software companies in the same range as what I got as a senior engineer with 8 years of experience a few years ago. I'm talking base salary $160K-$180K, $300K equity grant, 10% annual bonus, sign on bonus, relocation...the works.
Not to say that everyone can simply walk in to these jobs (and they shouldn't!), but if a graduating CS major cannot find any decent software job today I'd be more inclined to suspect their skills than the industry itself.