Why was his graduate school dream “shattered” by the pandemic? A gap year is not a terrible thing - or even a bad thing - and for many graduate programs, it can be a good thing or a necessary thing. Furthermore, the pandemic is temporary; theoretically, we won’t all still be social distancing a year from now (dear god, I hope not - but with a vaccine on the way, it seems unlikely), and most graduate programs will eventually resume taking students as they did before.
So unless something else happened, his dream’s not shattered, just postponed. He just needs to be patient.
As for the jobs - well, the economy is in a difficult place. Some businesses are booming (mostly digital ones) while others are really suffering (the hospitality industry). So it may take longer than usual for him to find a job.