I think it's typically been tough
The late 90s were the exception, not the rule. When I graduated with a BSCS in '93 it was tough. I talked with fellow undergrads during that time, and they were saying that it took a year for graduates to find their first job. My experience was the same. Many of the ones who found entry level work got jobs doing software testing as an entree into development. They didn't get into programming at first. My first job out of college was mainly babysitting tape backups, and doing software technical support (what would now be called "help desk.") My first real programming gig was a short contracting job I got with someone who was an employee of a small company in town, who also ran a one-man software business on the side. I worked with him personally in his one-man business for a few months. He was pleased enough with my work to invite me in to work with his "day job" employer. I came on initially as a contractor there, and eventually became a full-time employee. I stayed there for 4 years.
The difference was most of what I needed to know I learned in college. The only new thing I had to learn to really be a participant was about relational databases. There are probably a lot of small firms where you don't have to know Agile, or know about unit testing, to get your foot in the door. The basics are web technologies and some programming language like Java or PHP. These are not going to be the nicest places to work, because they're not that disciplined, but people can at least get some kind of work experience that may make them marketable. They may even be able to create their own job in such an environment, perhaps introducing ideas like unit testing, gaining experience in a key skill that they can use to move on to another, better job. The thing is, even in these places they've asked for 1 year of work experience for "entry level" in recent years, something I didn't have to contend with so much when I got into IT. So I think Justin's advice is more practical in terms of creating your own business, or working on an open source project for a while, to give you that "pre-entry level" work experience.
