Your home node doesn't show your location, so it's hard to comment on the job situation - it is quite industry and location specific. If you find some financial institutions or publishing companies there are bound to be perl positions going. Take a look at the jobs.perl.org and whatever general job site serves your location.

Certifications? If any applicants I review have certifications my tendancy is to be more sceptical of the rest of their CV. If you're a Cisco engineer, sure, certification is important, but not programming. I'd be more impressed that you had, say, read the back catalog of the perl journal, or perhaps built a website using a web framework of your choice. The second bonus of doing the latter is that you have some sample code to give recruiters - some employers ask to see that.

Note that I'm not saying you can't test basic coding skills. I personally give all candidates who make it to first interview through a set of written tests and on-whiteboard interactive problems. If you've read the Camel book cover to cover and put some of it into practise in code you're in good shape.