There are a few post on this thread that imply the airlines will try to hire more experienced pilots when they can. The idea is that it is a buyers market and the airlines will prefer to hire a more experienced pilot over a less experienced pilot. I do not believe this is the case.

I believe that Colgan and Mesaba were selecting low experience pilots in the latter part of last year over more experienced pilots. And you can't blame them. Why would they want to hire a furloughed mainline or other who will jump ship as soon as the job market opens back up. Unfortunately, a situation like 3704 may be just a cost of doing business. Of course, nobody will admit this. I believe it is possible that Colgan passed over more qualified candidates when selecting the FO that was on 3704. How could that have changed the outcome?

I don't know what the answer is. If airlines are now voluntarily increasing their mins, it may be because their secret is getting out and they need to get away from the former practice of intentionally hiring pilots on the lower side of the experience scale. How would the public feel if they new that airlines intentionally select less experienced pilots to save on recruiting and training cost related to turnover from more experienced pilots?