Forecasting the job market, aka ‘How long is a piece of string?’
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, if you buy the argument that good timing is a key to success, you’ll want to try and predict the state of the market when you qualify. My crystal ball is no better than anyone else’s, but experience of the last two recessions is a good starting point. And I say again, it took years for the job market to recover.
Signing up for an integrated course, you will be qualifying in 14 months time or so, irrespective of job prospects.
Go modular, and from the date of passing the last ATPL exam (which itself is flexible) you have a 3 year window to pass the IR. Any time within that window, the CPL and IR can be done in 3 months, start to finish, and at a time that suits you and the job market. Ergo, you have more control over your timing. I did just that, and it worked for me.
I would suggest that whatever state the industry is in, it’s a lot easier to predict what things will be like in 3 months rather than 14.