This is bogus. Stossel is out of his range here. Constantly showing people flying GA and saying really? 1500? What do you mean this kid flying a 152 can't be an FO on a 737? 1500 unsupervised hours meet the requirement "but." Of course "but." If he did any research he'd know that no one with just 1500 piston SEL is getting hired at any ULCC, LCC, or Major.
The unions cited low pay for a lack of pilots. Yeah, that's correct. No one wants to fly for foodstamps. Go figure going into significant debt and being paid peanuts wasn't appealing. Training has changed, applicants are more experienced, and the main thing, safety and reductions in accidents shows that.