Depends on a lot of things: where he is geographically sounds pretty good, but he also doesn't have a lot of team experience, and many (most?) places seem to discount most solo hobbyist experience, for a variety of good and bad reasons.

It's hard to find many kinds of developers, but other kinds (and experience levels!) are lucky if they have a job at all right now.

I'm in the enviable position of having about 11 years of full-time experience at coding, and ten or so more amateur/hobbyist/kid years before that, so I can still pretty much dictate terms to most employers. But a lot of people, especially people without as much education and experience, are having a tough time right now.

It's nearly impossible to hire good developers. Just as you've noticed.

It's also really easy to find a job if you're a good developer and have the references and public-facing projects to prove it.

It's the other 90% of the guys who have all the trouble finding jobs and who contribute to this sense that "there are no jobs out there". That's not actually true, but it may as well be for them.

Shame too, since a lot of those 90%'ers are actually pretty good. They just don't have a ton of experience, enough good references, or a single big hit they've built that they can show off.