In today's economy, would you get a job if you applied to 15 places?

No applying to 10-15 places will not get you a job. Applying to 50-100 places statistically will not be much better. You will not get hired in 2-3 weeks. There are thousands of people unemployed. The employer will carefully scrutinize applications and resumes and only call back the highest qualified candidates for consideration. The employer will not settle for a job candidate. Employers can be as choosy as they want in this economy. If you call the employer every other day to ask the status you will quickly be removed from the list of applicants in consideration. There is nothing more annoying to an employer than a persistent job hunter that bugs them at every possible chance.