Lee..
The US market is a great place to be for a pilot right now...but for how long, I don't know. All the majors are hiring right up to the max they can and are limited only by their flight academy/simulator capacity constraints. Here at American Airlines, we are hiring 108 pilots per month for the rest of this year. We are also contracting out to 7 other training companies/airlines to help ease our flt academy's full schedule.
The beginner pilot here has a great chance to get on with a commuter to one of the big airlines, ie, Eagle, Skywest, United Express etc...as their requirements are now at, I believe around 250 hours to start.
NOW is the time to get hired. Don't wait any longer than you have to....the seniority thing reigns supreme!!
Yowie talked about how hard YOU want to work at it......take that as the gospel. Do research on each company you want to work for...talk to some of their pilots. Become knowledgable of their operations, fleet, bases, chief pilot names, CEO's etc.
Hope this helps.
Patrick Lane
Captain 737-800
American Airlines