It's probably worse than that.

There's a sector of aviation I tried to get into for a long time, and it was explained to me that there are fewer FOs in that sector than there are Green Bay Packers.

This is an industry for being a whole candidate, not just a set of qualifications. No one will pick you out of the pool of employees and plug you into a good job, you've got to make yourself the best fit and fight to get plugged in everywhere possible.

I think a lot of people really believed that if they worked hard and followed the CFI, regional major plan, it would all work out.

I can't believe it wasn't even 10 years ago that I remember CFIs sitting around with 700 hours talking about all the offers they had.