Sorry to hear some of you guys are job hunting in this environment. From my casual observation of the expat world, time in type and a current PC are king (with SIC jobs admittedly being harder to come by that PIC jobs). I see some FO jobs in China asking for 2-3000 hours total time but only 100 time in type.
Maybe a good amount of time in type would offset that last 1000 hours they want ?
I wouldn't write off the ME as a place to go. I know some young guys working there and it isn't quite as bad as one might imagine.
Hang in there and shotgun those apps to everyplace on the planet. What harm can it do ?
You probably know about this already but try
www.pprune.com for the international perspective on flying. People from all over the world post there and you may be able to get some reliable info by asking questions there.