Was perusing yesterday's The Australian aviation section enroute and cannot remember seeing as many pilot jobs advertised...particularly rotary wing.
The coming crunch for helicopter pilots is caused by an historic oversupply of chopper pilots caused by the Vietnam War...they are all retiring in a rush and precious little has ever been done to ameliorate that eventuality. Helicopter Operators the world over have enjoyed a 30 year period of plenty thanks to the massive training carried out by the military in the 1960s and 70s...they had very little need to employ low time pilots because there were many 1000s with large turbine helicopter experience. The relatively high cost of learning to fly rotary wing combined with the extreme difficulty finding decent work in the rotary field over the last 30 years, if you were a newbie civil chopper hopeful, now means that a cronic shortage is materialising at a rapid rate.
The fixed wing side has suffered all the same over supply problems for many of the same reasons but not to anything like the same extent...but it is coming too.
I suspect the big driver (one of at least) for lowered T&Cs from the likes of GD is a reaction to this outlook where T&Cs will be driven upwards...they are desperately trying to lower the starting point to alleviate their pain when the end game becomes obvious.
CEOs look at long term...5-10 yrs...the average pilot's idea of 'long term' is next year...It would not surprise me at all if airline management at airlines like QF know more about the looming aviation skills shortage than almost anyone else.
And why slag off aganst these operators at the entry level? New pilots have to come from somewhere...they are making perfectly valid points and it is at last getting into the mainstream media...don't knock it, embrace it.