If Pilot, Flyer, AC Int etc all jump on the band wagon and keep reporting of a huge pilot shortage, the FTO's advertising and spending thousands are really happy,
Im glad im not the only one to have noticed the ****e being pushed out by those mags (and the reason I never read Pilot anymore), they started pedalling that rubbish about 2 years ago.
As for F/O pay for new pilots straight from flight school....I have a number of friends who have gone straight into the Lo-Cos (all on the 737) through the various schemes and most have (or will have) taken home less than 6k in thier first 6 months of line flying. (BTW they were all modular and got jobs off their own backs)