It might be some small comfort that this "fake hiring" situation has always been around and is not limited to US and dev positions. Anecdotally, my wife applie

It might be some small comfort that this "fake hiring" situation has always been around and is not limited to US and dev positions. Anecdotally, my wife applied to a large European cross-country multi-billion project as an architect. She had the perfect mix of government and private experience in relevant technologies or so we thought. There was no response. The position remained open for a half year more along with dozens more. Why would someone waste money advertising (even in print) on these positions, if no interviews were conducted? Apparently all that happened is that high level management hired HR firm to place advertisements and collect candidates for lower level positions that would actually do the work. Presumably this was done in good faith in that project would be moving forward. Now two years later the project has 4X ballooned in cost to 25 billion. Those local positions are still not filled.