There will never be a 'pilot shortage' at the newly-qualified level, I'm firmly convinced of that.
Sure there is, periodically, more big-jet captain's jobs out there than there are suitable upgrade candicates, but that's because you can't just go and create a captain in the space of a few months (like you can a CPL/IR).
This current lull in the job market will result in another situation like the Gulf War did in the mid-90s, i.e. there'll probably be a captain shortage in 5 - 10 years time because of the total lack of recruiting from the bottom over the years previous. That 'captain shortage' in itself will no doubt be seized upon by the flying school marketing people, translated into 'pilot shortage' and sold as great news to gullible wannabes.
Unless you're in a room full of people with several thousand multi turbine hours, any discussion of pilot shortages should be treated as the utter horse sh!t that it is. It is NEVER easy to get a decent airline job with low hours unless you're sponsored, superhuman or daddy owns one
.