How many men applied in 1992 and how many applied in 1999? Percentage figures, when dealing with small numbers to begin with, are misleading. Scotland's about the size of Dallas County, in Texas; in addition, what denomination is the Church of Scotland, or is it its own denomination?
Much of the increase in vocations (if, indeed there has been one) is in third-world countries, where the priesthood will provide a secure life and protection from starvation. In addition, there is still some prestige for the priesthood in these countries.
I think the mis-perception is in defining what the priesthood is. The priesthood is not a job or even an avocation that pious men hopefully take up. It is a calling from God to lead a special life.
The Church does not hire priests but rather persons who recieve a special calling from God to take up a spiritual life may choose to become priests/monks. This is as much a spiritual action of God as is the Consecration of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a true action and is not symbolic. You either believe this or you don't, there is no halfway.
The men who recieve this calling may choose to become celibate. Celibacy for some of them is not a problem because they are under the special spiritual guidence of God who gave them the calling. Some may choose other self-sacrifices too such as fasting, vows of poverty or silence. These are all ways of divorcing themselves from the secular world and bringing themselves closer to the spiritual.
1 Corinthians 7:32-33
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
The celibacy of priests in the Western Church is not dogma nor doctrine but tradition and a disciplinary rule. The Western Church prefers to have men who have the spiritual strength to practice this most rigorous form of self-denial. There are married priests in the Eastern Rite Church and married Latin Rite converts from the Lutheran and Episcopalian Church in some instances.
My cousin although married and Catholic is a Rector in the Episcopalian Church because in the middle of his life, he left a very successful professional life, he recieved a calling from God. He could not get permission to become a priest in the Catholic Church because he was married but instead of getting all gruff about it he continues to enrich the lives of both Catholics and Episcopalians.
The frailty of man not withstanding, the main factor is that priests SHOULD be men that are called by God to the spiritual life. Once they recieve the call the Church takes that bud and develops it in the seminary.
The problem today I think is that the Church is doing the calling rather than God. You need men that already have committed their lives to God. You don't take men that go out for one last fling before entering the seminary but rather men that are living the spiritual life and have already started to divorce themselves from secular things. I do think that the Church can make better use of the laity to help spread the Gospel and their works to make up for the shortage of priests.
"For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven"
(Matt. 22:30).