I highly recommend she network/attend events/meet industry people outside of a job hunting context. What technical topics is she into? What business topics? She should be around topics/events she naturally finds interesting, and lots of opportunities will come up.
Though I have my own indie business and am not seeking employment, people inquire about jobs I may be interested in all the time. (My point? If you're concerned her current job status is influencing things, having people admiring of one's ideas, talent, etc... before they even know where you work... would solve that dynamic.)
I feel especially confident about this recommendation because like your wife, I have more of an IT background than dev (which is indisputably undergoing a talent shortage... but so is IT.)
If she's more into virtual networking/learning, I can't recommend Twitter enough. You have to put effort into following great folks, but I've learned so much stuff from Twitter buddies.
buena suerte :D
[aside: I am also English/Spanish bilingual and have just started to enjoy http://www.noticiashacker.com, which is a Spanish Hacker News. She may like that, too.]