It used to be hella easier, I think. My brother-in-law is tenure-track and I think he tried at like 60 places before he ended up where he is. Another friend is a sysop for a school I went to. He's been there since 1999. They've been under a hiring freeze since 2006... ...but the provost just approved pay raises for faculty.
Dang, that's so many. I do wonder how the situation will turn out over time though, especially since I'm from New England, which as you know has a shitload of schools in a small area (the North East in general) and not a whole lot of industry that is wholly unrelated to schools. The Scandinavian countries are pushing really hard to gain recognition and to pull in a lot of international students but I don't think they're very competitive except for engineering and some of the sciences, but as the century progresses, who knows?