bafanguy
I agree - I know guys in their late 40's and early 50's with no jet or T/P experience being hired by the regionals - they are marketable right now because they have 1500hrs either as CFI's or by other means. Europe is quite different though with no minimum hours requirement and an endless supply of young (non-sponsored or tagged) flight school graduates who are prepared to self-fund type rating courses (and line experience) at higher than market cost in order to secure a job. This in addition to those fortunate enough to find work where they are only bonded for training costs and where the employer selects those that present the lowest training risk for the reasons described earlier.
The other issue is scale - the US has an enormous aviation industry by comparison to Europe and whereas I have no doubt either that seats will be filled out of necessity, that level of demand will never be reached in Europe.