Even in CS in the US it varies a lot by specialty and region. I know some sysadmins in the Midwest who've been having trouble finding work lately. It seems that even if you can do other things, having an N-year CV of doing Unix sysadmin work (and an age >M, for some N,M) puts you into a ghetto which doesn't currently have a lot of jobs. Especially true if you don't have a degree. CS has a reputation of caring less about degrees than many other fields, but the combination of a sysadmin CV and no degree seems to raise the odds that you'll get typecast as "computer janitor".

Agreed, which was part of my motivation for entering the field. Also, a reason why I've avoided the sorts of relationships which will tie me to one geographic area.

On the subject of solutions, has our society been incredibly dishonest with this person? Why didn't his parents, teachers, or friends tip him off to the frustrating future of the field he is in? Is this a systemic problem, or is he an outlier? Where have we failed him?

I wish I had more data on this guy and people like him.