As an ex-OAA person myself, when I joined Oxford I was encouraged that the market appeared to be recruiting quite heavily. I was also encouraged to read and hear about various airlines buying new aircraft, introducing new routes and a general feeling that a downturn was in the past and a major upturn had begun.
I didn't foresee the credit-crunch / US sub-prime lending catastrophe and the recession which has now most certainly taken hold of us here in blighty.
As Ollie268 mentioned, there isn't much going on in terms of recruitment right now and so many OAA folk as well as folk from other FTO's are likely to have bitten the bullet, spoken to their bank manager / parents / cash-happy people (or simply just withdrawn from their current account) the next sum of money to pay for the type training and join Ryanair.
BA and Flybe are the only airlines that are realistic for OAA grads to get interviews / assessments and a general sense that they might get considered through the Oxford Aviation "recommendations" system that currently exists.
One or two airlines tend to come in at a moments notice and snap up one lucky bugger, although the last time I heard of this was around April time when the successful candidate joined an airline in Vietnam.
While Oxford are keen to ensure we're all aware that they are on-target for the year, I suspect Ryanair recruitment will be the saving grace for another year of "ok" employment stats. The fact is, I don't think this is the fault of a flying school, purely, it's just one of those times that is going to be very very very difficult for people to secure a job and not because they aint good enough whether they are modular, integrated or whatever, but the jobs simply ARE NOT THERE right now.
The notion that paying a premium price should somehow entitle us to get the best job rather than joining the likes of Ryanair is a load of rubbish. Knowing what I know now, I would still have followed an integrated route and still, despite problems, have gone to Oxford. When I joined Oxford I hoped to get a job out of it. I wasn't sure who it would be with but getting the first job, the first step on the ladder was critical. I got that. Perhaps I might have achieved it doing it a different way, but I doubt I would have done it in under 2 years.
Back to the original post about the May stats - Expect to see Oxford with 178 placements by the end of the year (it's just a guess....), of which, 98 will be Ryanair.
It's going to be a tough year for all flight training students - and a real test for the FTO's to keep the morale up!