Would you apply for a role if 200+ people had already applied? That’s what I asked my Linkedin network recently.
144 people voted.
- 53% said no
- 47% said yes
The results highlight something many hiring teams are experiencing already: modern recruitment processes are creating huge amounts of activity, but not necessarily better hiring outcomes.
For employers, high application numbers can create the illusion of a strong talent pool when reality is it’s just noise.
And for candidates, seeing “200+ applicants” attached to a role can be enough to stop highly relevant people applying altogether.
The rise of application inflation
Platforms like LinkedIn and free to access AI tools have made applying for jobs incredibly easy. That accessibility has obvious benefits, but it has also fundamentally changed candidate behaviour.
One-click applications mean recruiters and internal hiring teams can receive hundreds of CVs within days sometimes within hours of posting a role.
LinkedIn reported that job applications on its platform increased by more than 45% year-on-year between 2024 and 2025, with around 11,000 applications submitted every minute.
Which sounds like to good news for business hiring, but the problem is that volume and relevance are not the same thing.
Many applications are poorly aligned to the role itself and because applying for roles is easier than ever, more candidates apply speculatively.
Others apply to dozens of roles simultaneously with minimal tailoring or consideration of suitability.
As a result, hiring teams often spend significant time screening applications that were never realistically viable in the first place while some of the strongest candidates never enter the process at all.
Why good candidates often don’t apply
One of the most interesting parts of the poll was not the people willing to apply despite the numbers.
It was the 53% who said they would not. That group likely includes many of the candidates employers actually want to reach.
Strong candidates are often the most selective. They may already be employed, busy or cautious about where they invest their time, so when they see a role with hundreds of applicants attached to it, many assume:
- the role is already effectively filled
- the odds are too low to justify the effort
- the process will be slow or impersonal
- their application is unlikely to be seen properly
In other words, large applicant numbers can actively discourage highly relevant talent from engaging.
And the greatest irony? Some of these roles may still have very few genuinely suitable candidates in the process.
Why employers are still struggling to hire
This helps explain a contradiction many businesses are facing today: How can companies receive hundreds of applications and still struggle to hire the right person?
Because application volume is not the same as talent access and a crowded inbox does not automatically produce quality shortlists.
In fact, excessive application numbers can slow hiring down:
- hiring managers spend longer screening CVs
- internal teams become overwhelmed by administration
- strong candidates get lost in the process
- decision-making slows down
- candidate experience deteriorates
The end result is often frustration on both sides.
Where recruiters add value
As a founder of a recruitment business, I get asked all the time about my thoughts on AI and how it will impact our industry. Many assume it will negatively effect recruiters.
But one of the reasons specialist recruiters like Talentedge continue to play an important role in the market is precisely because of these advancements in tech.
A good recruiter helps organisations cut through the noise by:
- identifying the right talent, not just the available talent
- engaging passive candidates who would never apply directly
- qualifying motivation, capability and fit before a CV reaches the client
- reducing the time spent screening irrelevant applications
- providing market insight around salary expectations, availability and candidate behaviour
Importantly, recruiters are often accessing a very different part of the talent market because the best candidates are rarely sitting on job boards applying alongside hundreds of other people.
Many are already employed and only move when approached with the right opportunity – which means to ensure you get the very best candidate for your role, you need access to the candidate networks that are built by recruiters over decades not the talent pools flooded in minutes of posting a job online.
Posting a role and waiting for applications can still work in some situations. But for specialist, commercial or leadership hiring, relying entirely on inbound advertising is becoming increasingly unreliable.
The businesses hiring most effectively are typically combining advertising with proactive search, targeted outreach and specialist market engagement.
Because if you want access to the people who are not clicking “Easy Apply” on every advert, you usually need a strategy designed to reach them differently.
Tracy Flowerday – Co-founder & COO: Tracy has over 20 years experience in the recruitment industry, working closely with founders, CEOs, CFOs and investors. Tracy has helped shape Talentedge’s consultative approach to finance hiring, combining deep market knowledge with a strong understanding of how finance leadership requirements evolve as businesses scale.
