Fair enough, and I admit this data showing such and such number of pilots exist is widely open to interpretation. But my point in showing the chart is, that one can as easily interpret things any number of ways and shortage is not really in agreement with facts like these.

I am only a messenger, but here's a quote from a decent source (US Bureau of Labor Statistics):

Employment of airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers is projected to decline 7 percent from 2012 to 2022. It is likely that scheduled airlines will attempt to increase profitability over the next decade by increasing the average number of passengers in all aircraft. This will probably be done by eliminating routes with low demand and reducing the number of flights per day along more heavily used routes. These practices will ultimately lower the overall number of flights and lower the total number of pilot jobs.