The pool was drying up significantly well before the 1500 rule kicked in. The REAL reason for the shortage of entry-level regional first officers is that young college age people will not, do not or cannot shell out at least another $50,000 on top of standard college costs to get a $24,000/year job that treats them like garbage. Their parents cannot or will not cosign such economical nonsense.

The majority of those with Commercial certificates or better are already established professionals in other fields that make switching to entry-level regional F/O positions laughable. The dopes in airline management now know their situation, they are just in the misrepresentation/denial stage. Congress has no clue as usual and the tsunami wave is gaining speed and will slam into the regional airline beach party with far more force then many realize. In 18 months it will be a full blown crisis for many of these carriers and many small/mid-size towns air service is on borrowed time.

You reap what you sow and the greedy airline managements have sown this successfully for decades, but as John McClain said. "the party's over, pal".