Competition for Professional, Management and Senior Executive roles

Article in the Advertisers job supplement regarding the increase in applications for senior roles and the increase in numbers of potential candidates being shortlisted for the roles. Someone was telling me recently about a council job role in Adelaide that received 500 applications and they shortlisted 10 applicants. Previously in HR/recruitment roles I would try to limit the shortlist to around 6 candidates to interview, but as the article states because of the quality of candidates and the amount of people on the job market for certain roles, this means recruiters can be more selective.