I'm intrigued by WWW's figure of 2000 pilots looking for work! This would represent over 10% of all UK licence holders, which doesn't sound right to me.
I suspect that this figure is the from the same source that similar ones have come before, the CAA's statistics. However, you have to know how they compile them - you appear as "unemployed" if you a valid professional licence but are not listed on any company's AOC.
This means that the following categories count as "unemployed":
-All flying instructors (and they're not all chasing the airline dream)
-All private/corporate bizjet drivers
-Everyone working abroad
-All the ex-BA (and similar) guys who took retirement at 55, have hung up their gloves but their licence hasn't expired yet.
In the late 80's era that MOR refers to I was heavily involved in training, and prior to the "great shortage" airlines were telling everyone that there were about 1,000 pilots on the market so there was no prospect of any shortage. Unfortunately (for them), the above factors had been ignored, so that when they started looking for people, they found that the true figure was nearer 200 - or about enough crews for 10 aircraft.
I think that this could easily happen again, although there are also many factors which could prevent it. Fingers crossed
The thing that irritates me more than anything is that when pilots start moving around the same operators who were squeezing for all they were worth start complaining about the "lack of loyalty"!!
Anyway, good luck to all trying to get started.