There is a pilot shortage. However the definition of pilot is a quite wide one and to me it seems there's a huge gap between what is required and what can be offered in terms of new pilots. At the moment in my company, there is a huge shortage of captains, type rated and experienced on type. This however, does not make any lowtimers feel better.
As has been said previously, the language is also a big barrier. Finland for example has a booming aviation industry at the moment. However, none of the Finnish carriers will accept non Finnish spoken applicants. It's a real shame because the amount of jobs on offer over here is amazing (compared to my homecountry, Sweden). If operators would accept the fact that English is the language to be used aviation, we could all use the benefits that came with JAR FCL and the EU/EASA or whatever it's called this month...
Regards/ LnS