I'm not sure I would agree that September 11th was a tiny blip. As a then wannabe I would say that, taking those I knew who were training at the same time, and the length of time post Sept 11th it took for everyone to find jobs (I'll admit to being almost the slowest - deliberately - there is one left to go) that things have only returned to normal for sub 500 hours pilots within the last 12 or 18 months. Now it's on the way back down again. Great.
Interestingly, due to a general lack of money which is causing the downturn, I suppose there will be fewer new students with the means to start training, although I don't suppose this will ever balance the fall in the number of new jobs.