I'll say from first hand experience that myself, and most of those I know who graduated with engineering degrees, did not have an easy time finding a job. The shortage is in employers paying for work, not in workers.
Why hire a new grad when you can hire some schmuck who lost his job in the recession, with 5+ years of experience, at the same pay grade? Engineering companies can pay interns <$12/hour and give them no benefits, or hire experience professionals on the cheap. Or, even better, ship labor over seas to India, or do what locke said.
The US will hit another rough patch here in a few years. Most companies are now missing a hugely important section of their workforce. They stopped hiring for the last 10 or so years, and now you've got a bunch of companies that have plenty of new grads, say <25 years old, and older folks 55+ who where entrenched enough to not lose their jobs. There is such a huge age gap that in about 5-10 more years there will be no senior managment left, as they'll be retired, and no well trained mid level people to replace them... But hey, at least they got cheap labor for 20 years.