Hundreds of Applicants for a Single Job
The IT Labour Market and its Overrun by Applicants
You see a job posting, polish your resume, write a compelling cover letter, and send it off, only to feel like it has vanished into a digital black hole. A recent online discussion highlighted a common anxiety among job seekers: “100-200 applicants for one position, how is that supposed to work?”[1] For many job announcements, this is no longer a worst-case scenario; it’s the baseline.
One of the key drivers is the universal appeal of the “comfortable job” (bequeme Job in German). These are often office-based roles with regular hours, remote work options, and good pay—a description that fits many IT and engineering positions perfectly. This perception acts as a powerful magnet, drawing in a massive pool of candidates. The perception of the comfortable job acts as a magnet, drawing in a massive pool of candidates.
Engineer Example on LinkedIn
The evidence is clear and immediate. As one user noted from their experience on LinkedIn: Job online for 2 hours - 80 applicants (engineering position). I just want a job :(
This isn’t an anomaly; it’s rapidly becoming the standard. The moment a good job is posted, the race begins, and the sheer volume of applicants creates an environment where just being seen is the first major hurdle.
The Extreme Case - Remote IT Jobs in Europe and the USA
If the job market becomes more and more competitive, the market for remote software engineering roles becomes hyper-competitive. The numbers are staggering and paint a stark picture of the challenge in Europe and in the USA.
According to an article on Medium titled “It’s a Fact: Remote Software Engineer Jobs Receive 1,000+ Applicants Each”2, the situation has escalated. The author argues against the conventional wisdom of carefully targeting a few employers, stating that the sheer volume requires a different approach. The reality is that any remote software engineer job can receive over 1,000 applicants within its first week.
The overprovisioning of IT persons
We are currently training more IT specialists than there are jobs being created or people retiring.1
This creates a bottleneck, especially for entry-level and junior positions. The applicant pool is saturated with recent graduates, career-changers, and individuals with foundational certifications, all competing for the same slice of the pie.
Sad Example in a Austria’s job market
The author shared a personal experience as a hiring manager:
I heared this personally, when a mid-level (not senior) software engineer job has received so many applications, that the HR responsible of a HR firm (undisclosed) randomly tosses 80 %. The only factor is time how the HR responsible removes applications to obtain ‘short list’.
This intense competition is further fueled by recent tech layoffs, which have flooded the market with tens of thousands of programmers and IT persons from “big name” companies or small and medium companies in Europe which do not endure the price pressure.
These persons are now competing for the same roles, raising the bar in the competition pool.
Maybe some advice for hiring managers in this environment is blunt: include the salary range and tech stack in the job description to avoid wasting time. For applicants, it means facing a stochastical number game.
A Personal Conclusion - The Human Cost of Application Overload
So, what happens when a single job posting attracts hundreds, or even thousands, of applicants? The system breaks down. Recruiters and hiring managers become so overwhelmed that their process for selecting candidates can become arbitrary and brutal.
Another thing is that HR firms get paid for finding the best candidate for an open position, but this will be not achieved if they are beginning to (randomly) putting the majority of applications in a rubbish bin!
The situation reveals the grim truth of the modern job hunt for roles. Your carefully crafted resume, your experience, and your qualifications can be rendered meaningless, not because you aren’t a good fit, but because you were part of the >80% that was never even seen. In such a market so saturated, the challenge isn’t just to be the good fit. It is becoming harder with a increasing random component in the piles of applicants.