There are also alot of:
The group of GA/Low Cap Pilots that are in the 4,000 hours plus range that have a good skill set to bring to Virgin or Jetstar
who HAVE applied, and are never called from any of these players.
So, so try telling all those guys who are wondering where they have gone wrong getting time and experience in GA/Low Cap turboprops and not getting even a nibble, that there is a pilot shortage.
Plenty of pilots sub 3000hrs get the call.
Go Figure
PS As an addendum to Podbreak's comments...People often use Europe as an example of low experience pilots getting jet jobs as an indication that we in Australia have too-high minimums - so I will go with that environment.
Operations in Oz, especially regional/GA/Turboprop & night freight are not exactly a cakewalk! No we don't have the snows and consistent low vis like a European winter, but we also don't have the infrastructure they do to support bad weather ops when they do arise here. They have the gear on the ground, and in the plane (most of the time) to deal with it. Our alternates are often hundreds of miles away, with an NDB your only approach. Europe is littered with Cat I/II/III ILS, VORS etc etc, and plenty of airfields with HIAL etc etc. Our airport infrastructure, except for the major TMA's are distinctly poverty-pack, with basic aids, basic approach lighting etc. And I don't care the whys of not having 'all the good gear'. We don't have it, end of story.
Our weather is considered 'benign'. I wouldn't call some of the lines of storms we get for hundreds of miles (ok been a while since that occurrence due el nino etc) or some ferocious inflight icing we deal with is, widespread fogs in winter, or the rain sodden, windy east coast with LP systems pumping ****e, low cloud, rain and turbulence onto the coast for 5-7 days at a time, exactly benign.
Are the experience minimums here too high? Not anymore!! Were they?? Maybe! (Maybe that's why our accident rate was low) But I can tell you this:
It IS possible to operate turboprop or jet equipment if you are taught correctly, even with low hours.
However, it's the situational awareness and 'big picture' vision, and dare i say it 'rat-cunning' that pilots get from years of flying, watching, learning and evaluating what goes on, that makes the BIG difference.
Alot of guys progressing into the 'upper ranks' of GA (turboprops - God forbid, even a Metro!) have never really flown in SERIOUS IFR where your alternate needs an alternate needs an alternate etc, because the drought and wx hasn't been so bad the last few years. They have probably been taught to fly IFR by instructors who never did either.
If the weather gets as wet as they are predicting his year - some guys are going to learn some lessons THE HARD WAY.
I just hope it doesn't get too ugly.