Computer skills or not, the pay is not appropriate for an engineering position if he's expecting any sort of experience or qualifications beyond the degree itself. I graduated from an engineering college, I've got several close friends who are engineers (electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical and geological), all of them started working fresh out of college at +$10k more than that.

Graduates are probably getting better offers from other employers and experienced workers are probably laughing at the job ads, or politely turning him down once salary was discussed but not telling him why.