Is Job market out there really harsh rn?

I was talking with one of my friend regarding his job switch plans. He's trying since 4 months and applied to hundred's of opportunities. Of all those, only a handful he got some replies and of them just two interview schedule had happened. One of the interview he cleared and even then the company put him on hold for 2 weeks and later the company moved ahead with some other candidate(maybe the other candidate was asking for less pay).