Ask HN: Is the market still bad even for senior+ engineers?

I have more than 8 years of professional experience and a couple more outside professional environments. I've been working with Web back-end. Distributed systems, database optimisation, async communication, topics and queues, saga transactions, event-driven, observability, DDD, software architecture, technical leadership, stakeholder communication, project planning, it's all on my resume. All with solid real-world examples from my past and current employers (mostly startups and scale-ups).

And yet, even though I'm thankfully employed right now, I'm looking for another opportunity (personally not satisfied with my current company). I've been applying to countless jobs and yet, I'm finding it very difficult to get past the screening interview. Even for roles I was referred to by current employees (a engineering director referred me!).

Also, I'm not using AI for applications - besides small proof-reading - and I'm even dedicating some time to write sincere cover letters by myself, no AI involved, for every application.

Is it me or is the market this bad for everyone?