It doesn't mean it has to be harsh for them now. Lots of people (proberbly including "disappoint") didn't benefit from last few years' boom at all. Try to be fair, young boy.
Totally agree with ht_ca! At my peak job hunting period, I sent out more than 40 resumes everyday. My day would start by browsing the newsgroups (ott.jobs, tor.jobs, mtl.jobs, etc.), and I'd get job alerts from major job banks. I also kept a log of all company/position I sent my resume to (an MySQL db, very easy to set up). Just be patient and hope for the best.
If you really want to impress your potential employers, publish some technical articles in a professional magazine (more and better), which can be looked up easily on the internet. my classmates and myself all tried this way and it really works.