FR have upped the anti for holding pool selection to 1000hrs on JAR 25 type or equivalent.. Why... well partly because a lot of the low hours people were taking too long to line check out, they were miles behind the aircraft and in fairness felt under pressure.
Rapidly expanding companies don't have excess capacity for line training and any way of cutting this down is looked at.
There is always movement right to left and this does create vacancies, although,herein lies another problem, not enough experienced skippers and line trainers.
There are'nt that many people working on the feeder types with these sort of hours that want to move, why, because their own companies have progression from TP to Jet and they don't want to lose a position in the seniority list.. in round terms money and prospects.
At the low hours end there are a lot of people available, hence all these pre-selection deals, but, if it gets you a job, at least your'e working.
A whole bunch of Aerlingus pool guys went over to easyJet on the basis some could be recalled if needed, so there must be a demand but the airlines don't seem to have the time to go through the CVs and the due process so they use any outside help or options they can get.
There's been a lot of ventillation of the self typing issues, morality etc, however, you have to accept that this is fast becoming a pre-selection criteria, rightly or wrongly; and in essence, the system of self-typing with a caveat, that if you don't screw up, you will be employed, is creating a precedent for others to follow..
Back to the numbers game, again! If you are about to spend 15K on a type rating, it might as well be a jet.. Right? well not really. Simply because the number of jet vacancies for low hours guys means the competition is too great, not only are you competing with other like minded self-typers, you are up against the airline sponsored people as well.
On the other hand, guys willing to OFFER to self type on a turbo fleet, may just get the upper hand on someone with more hours as the margins and training budgets in the smaller operations tend to be less.
I am aware of at least three heavy TP outfits in the UK that are using agency staff, this isn't cost effective, but shows the lack of available people in these markets. OK this may be seasonal, but once your'e in you can look around and get a feel for what's really going on
Bottom line is, you make your own luck, if your'e working anywhere near an airplane, it's experience, money and networking, and in the end it's contacts that get you ahead in the number game.