The situation is indeed difficult. I understand there are aprox. 4000 qualified professional pilots unemployed in Spain alone. I know people who have a frozen ATPL, sick of waiting for any sort of airline/public transport/cargo or flying job with a decent salary (or at least to survivie on) have ended up working in other jobs (sometimes aviation related but not flying). I also knew a professional pilot who decided to take a degree after qualifying.
There are plenty of cases out there, but I think becoming a professional pilot and actually flying for a living requires alot of dedication and determination to succeed, even then it is by no means guaranteed.
Perhaps the way to go for those of us with other qualifications/careers is to enjoy private flying with a PPL and eventually with experience get a CPL/FI and become a flying instructor part time at weekends.
jerezflyer