These are some of the numbers United airlines put out at the WIA conference. In the next 10 years 11,400 United pilots have to be replaced due to retirement and growth. United is planning to hire 263 pilots between now and May 2 with 500 to 600 new pilots in 2017 total. In 2018, United expects to hire 800 to 1000 pilots.
Other numbers that were pushed out by other airlines, in the next 20 years 50,000 pilots will need to be hired into the market to replace retiring pilots and to fill seats of new order aircraft across the industry.
It's a good time to be in aviation and seems to be for the foreseeable future.