Things do seem to be picking up recruitment wise. Hardly a day goes past now without hearing of someone somewhere getting a first job. I suspect BA will open its direct entry doors over the winter and then you could see a lot of seat swapping going on. The market will then dictate terms all the way down the foodchain and the price of freightdog type ratings can easily and quickly go down. Its happened before.
That said winter is approaching (how many shopping days to Christmas? - Ed) and thats when someone or other usually goes under or scales back. It could well happen on the continent - KLM is frantically trying not to be the last wallflower at the dance, Swiss is still a basket case and the ghost of Sabena in Brussels is loosing buckets of money according to its recent accounts.
Any major failure could put the whole UK market back a year.
Hard choices to make but my mindset would be to NEVER pass a first commercial job in the hope of something better.
Good luck,
WWW