I am not sure where some of the posters on here originate from, but bear in mind in the UK there must be about 2 companies may be 3 that do banner towing, probably about 2 maybe 3 companies that do scenic fights on an A to A AOC, Aerial photography was nearly killed off by the drone operators, so opportunities for hour building out side of instructing are quite limited. To add banner towing isn't for low timers, most companies still need 500 hours for insurance and the same applies for a lot of para drop operations.
The choice for many will be just as it was in the post 9/11 era, choose a very expensive pay to fly scheme or instruct in attempt to keep some degree of currency.
Everyone who qualified in recent years (2015-2019) has seen an unrealistically high level of recruitment and for as long as many have known it the normal situation was that finding a job was a lengthy expensive process, and for a reasonable number it didn't happen.
However I can already see that Eaglejet are advertising pay to fly schemes has ramped up again, another agency offering a 30000k for an old Saab 340 rating (effectively pay to fly again).
So at worse this will be no worse than it was in 2004.