THERE IS NO PILOT SHORTAGE.
THERE WILL BE NO PILOT SHORTAGE.
What there *might* be in the future is a shortage of qualified (very loosely defined as 1000hr+) pilots willing to work for regional airline compensation & lifestyle - and we've already seen such a thing in the last few years.
NetJets, FlexJet, CitationAir, Avantair, etc. all had no problem finding & hiring pilots with well over 1000tt (or in the cast of the first three, over 2500tt) during the 2005-2008 hiring boom, while some regional airlines were scraping the bottom of the 300hr barrel just to fill classes.
Why? Compensation & lifestyle.
If regional airlines would raise first year guarantee pay to $36k, make second year pay $42k, and third year pay $45k then their pay would be similar to Avantair and I'd bet they wouldn't have any trouble pulling experienced pilots from places like AirNet, CAS, Key Lime, and some charter/corporate operators...not to mention lateral moves from other regionals.