Just a cockamamie theory but I've observed quite a few guys on here stating they know people with a great deal of experience and others referring to their own significant experience and being rejected multiple times by airlines and therefore are skeptical of a shortage currently. Could a factor in this be that airline recruitment folk are looking at the 10,000+ hour people and looking at their age (40+??) and for whatever reason being deterred by one or both of these factors? Not too hard to think up reasons why in their infinite wisdom they are rejecting these applicants. You hear a story about being rejected by Qlink for not having sufficient IFR time but you have everything else in spades and then on the flipside I have friends that had the absolute minimums and no IFR time and were a walkup start. You just cant pick it.