Sad but True
It ain't just the furloughed guys/gals that have it bad. What about those whose companies have gone bust? The ones who are laid off/redundant, period. Their airlines no longer exist. They have NO recall trights and usually no jobs. They have nothing to look forward to. And they too, are in competition with the 11,000 still on the streets going for the few jobs that remain.
It is a sad fact that not even the 9/11 terroists could imagine the effect on the US airline industry they would have. It was not only United and American that suffered. There's plenty others that you don't hear about.
Having gone to some extraordinary lengths to get back, I am still pounding the pavements after more than a year and I am not alone. I used to fly B757s into JFK once upon a time and now I'm a professional resume writer!
No body "likes" bad news but it is cold reality that there are probably more pilots out-of-work in the US than the TOTAL pilot population of several EU countries combined and I'm talking about professional, type rated, experienced people. So for those thinking about career opportunities here - forget it, there aren't any!!!!