Here’s a little story: I had a very poor performing person on my team do us all a favor and suddenly move to Canada (apparently he had been on a waiting list of some kind). He had been on a PIP, and he had shown some improvement, but he was never going to excel. He actually gave no notice, which meant he forfeited the payout for unused, leave time. He was making about $88,000 as a web writer and editor.
We quickly got the position listed, and after reviewing over 100 applications, we were ready to make an offer — and it was by far the best candidate we had. There was a problem: I missed that somebody in HR had set the salary range at $70-80K. My options were to delay the offer and make the case for why it should be higher (and I knew she had other offers), or offer her the maximum and hope she would counter. I would have felt horrible had she accepted at $80K, because she was obviously a super star. Luckily, she countered at $85K and it was quickly approved. I’m not thrilled that she’ll be making less than her predecessor, but I suspect she will be recognized with a raise before long.
The point of all this is that there’s no harm in asking for more. The worst they can do is say their budget is firm, at which point you can take it or leave it.
I mentioned 100+ applicants, which was in the span of about three weeks. When I previously hired for this position in 2019, it took months to find a handful of decent candidates.
One additional piece of advice: Don’t apply for a job unless you can demonstrate on a resume and cover letter why you are qualified for it. Hiring managers are swamped, and if you can’t quickly and effectively make the case for why you’re perfect, you’re getting rejected. Just because it’s a jobseeker’s market, doesn’t mean you can get whatever job you want. You will have stiff competition from extremely qualified candidates.