I think the crux here is that I actually do think this is mostly a problem of unqualified candidate spam, not too many qualified candidates.
In the age of zero-cost applications, qualified candidates apply to a targeted set of jobs so they can get the job they want most, then stop applying when they get one; but unqualified candidates apply to every job and keep doing it because they can’t pass interviews or quickly get fired. A gate like the one proposed in the post would reduce unqualified candidate spam by orders of magnitude while barely impacting qualified candidates.
Another way of looking at this is that companies aren’t stupid. If there actually was an excess of qualified candidates, they would absolutely take advantage of that by lowering wages.
I think the crux here is that I actually do think this is mostly a problem of unqualified candidate spam, not too many qualified candidates.
In the age of zero-cost applications, qualified candidates apply to a targeted set of jobs so they can get the job they want most, then stop applying when they get one; but unqualified candidates apply to every job and keep doing it because they can’t pass interviews or quickly get fired. A gate like the one proposed in the post would reduce unqualified candidate spam by orders of magnitude while barely impacting qualified candidates.
Another way of looking at this is that companies aren’t stupid. If there actually was an excess of qualified candidates, they would absolutely take advantage of that by lowering wages.