JT77
To answer your question, you haven't missed the boat because you have gained a qualification. However unfortunately your new licence is unlikely to result in the immediate employment you would have hoped for when you started.
Worldwide there are the very occasional jobs popping to the surface as people retire or leave the profession for other reasons. Unfortunately for you these jobs are being taken by experienced pilots because it is much cheaper and efficient for an airline to absorb such a pilot instead of training up a new guy. They also get the experience that comes with the package. And all this is happenning at a time when ALL airlines are trying to save money.
In the UK there numerous qualified pilots with literally thousands of hours in command that are - or just about to be - in the search for employment. You may have seen on the news that bmi will be making around 125 pilots redundant - all Airbus trained and even the most junior ones will have at least 3 years line flying under their belts.
That said the industry is notoriously cyclical. The recession just worsened a depressed situation. It will come back but you will see from other threads in this site that it not the time to spend good money to gain qualifications you may not use.
Obviously when every apsect of the industry is trying to remain trading the training schools will try to give the situation a positive spin. They will be making tremendous offers to attract more students in order to remain afloat. Your task is to decide if you NEED to buy that product now with little prospect of seeing a return in the short term.
Good luck!
HWB