My 2 cents worth. For the rest of the year, and in all probability next year too, the job scene is pretty well screwed. We havent quite seen a Dan Air or Air Europe(for those that can remember them!) go bust yet. It is however pretty dire times recruitment wise.
To the original poster -
Passenger airlines - no receruitment just now, redundancies all round. Those that have recruited within the last 12 months(Flybe, Ryanair, to name but a few) - long waiting lists for TR courses and start dates,and many offered cabin crew, ops jobs etc to keep them going interim period. Bargain on 12 - 24 months for any further recruitment.
Biz/Corporate - forget it unless you've got experience. Many biz jet jobs are harder to get than airline positions. Wealthy private owners and companies demand highly experienced crew up front and will pay well for the privilage. Bargain on a few years air taxi etc to break into this market. With companies like Netjets making people redundant, its not good news!
Air taxi/charter etc(light twins etc) - minimum 700 hours usually with at least 100 hours P1 MEP IFR time. Probably the hardest flying around hence high hours requirements on the twin MEP time.
Freight/Cargo - very similar to the airlines. The big jet companies(DHL etc) - lots of jet hours or at the very least lots of turboprop hours. Same go's for turboprop freight operators just now, competion is fierce for jobs. I know of 767 Captains with 20 years experience battling for a job on a Shorts 360 at the moment.
Turboprop Regional airlines - the Aer Arrans, Loganairs, eastern airways etc of this world ideally prefer the 1000 hours self improvers for the simple reason they can promote FO's to LHS quickly when the big boys start recruiting.
Flying Instruction - perhaps a few jobs around(mostly part time) but at least £7000 to do the rating. Lots of qualified FI's around now though and competition is hotting up for the few spaces around. Theres even a few around who are sending CV's with the "will work for free line"!!
As for the glider towing, para dropping etc.....mostly all unpaid(assuming you can find any). Its not a job, just something to keep the hours ticking at best.
Sorry to sound negative but thats the reality of it just now. The entire job market is absolutely 100% thoroughly at a standstill. Whether it's BA, Virgin, Eastern Airways.....or Air Charter 'whoever' etc etc, it's totally stagnant, with redundancies all round.
My best advice - find a job(ANY job) and start saving some cash if you can. Try and keep the flying current as best you can(many airlines will require 30 - 50 hours P1 in the preceeding 12 months to application). Be prepared for at least another 1 or 2 MEIR renewals.
As for the Eaglejet's of this world...and all the other buy a job scheme's around...thats a whole different thread!
You chose a bad bad bad
time to start an integrated course. Assuming your not a wind up!