Apples and oranges then. If i understand correctly, your definition of a "cadet" is someone on a tagged airline integrated course.
No, that isn't my definition. I understand "tagged" to mean that those cadets have been pre-selected for placement/employment prior to, or during a course of training. Many of the "wings cadets" at CTC have no idea of their placement (which in itself may change,) until the completion of their basic course. As placements are in the gift of the customer airline, the number of such placements is dynamic. If those numbers are low, then there may be significant delays in obtaining that portion of the advanced training. Further, there is absolutely no guarantee of employment with a particular customer airline dovetailing from any such placements.
I completely agree that in the current market, that is the best route to an "airline career".
Yes. I think love it or hate it, for all the strengths and weaknesses, it is still the best route in the current market and for the forseeable future.
Using your figures, that still leaves 80%+ of the sausage factory students with no jobs, never mind the other CPL/IRs qualified by other means.
No it doesn't. I have given a one airline snapshot. There are other airlines and I don't have their figures. However, it seems that most of the students who succesfully complete this particular programme, do obtain placements that allow them to complete their advanced training on a commercial flight deck, together with around 500 hours of type experience. Many seem to find that employment does indeed dovetail from these placements, (on terms that span a wide spectrum from excellent to poor.) British airways have students at this school as part of their FPP programme. Monarch airlines have students there as part of their MPL programme. Other airlines have taken students from the wings programme into employment. I don't have figures to offer, but I would very surprised if the numbers of succesful graduates (from the wings cadet programme,) not offered placements within a reasonable timeframe, was significant at all.
The subject of this rather long thread is quite specific. What happens to other "qualified" CPL/IR's is beyond the remit of this specific thread, and there are a great many other threads devoted to the many facets of that discussion.