From a systems thinking perspective there can be virtuous cycles or vicious cycles that self-reinforce. It could be that there are 449 ghost jobs being posted

From a systems thinking perspective there can be virtuous cycles or vicious cycles that self-reinforce. It could be that there are 449 ghost jobs being posted for every one real job. There are alternative explanations possible to why it took 450 applications to land one position. I disagree with your conclusion.