It's more complex than that. The schools may be full at the moment, they may be taking a cycle or two off, maybe there aren't quite enough instructors, or maybe they are going to be implementing the amalgamated "ops room trade" right away here - which would blow my mind, that happening so fast.
A LOT of junior operators have been run through in the past five years or so, and I believe I saw in the last issue of The Matelot that all ops trades are currently in the black, if only barely (and maybe nominally) so. I can count the number of west coast LS to MS and better promotions for all three trades on one hand this year, which also indicates a good stock of people in the system.