Almost 20,000 jobhunters scrambled for just 450 posts as West Midlands Police officers.
The force’s strategic police and crime board was told that 75 per cent of the 19,000 applicants were under the age of 30, with 70 per cent living in the region.
And head of human resources Chris Rowson said nearly a quarter were from black and minority ethnic groups.
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The official application process for the posts begins later this month and the jobs will be rolled out over the next two years.
Bosses began searching for 450 new officers in February, ending a five-year recruitment freeze.
The successful applicants for the new posts will have a starting salary of £21,999.
The new officers will be paid for via a council tax increase and the use of £60 million of police reserves. The Mail revealed last month that the cash-strapped force paid consultants almost £200,000 to mastermind the early stage of the recruitment process.
West Midlands Police said it did not have the “capacity or capability” to do the work itself and would not hire in-house staff as the jobs drive was a “one-off measure”.
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The TMP firm of recruitment consultants was instead paid £188,000 to help with online registration and tests and telephone interviews.
The spending was approved despite warnings last year that the force could suffer budget cuts of more than £150 million over five years.
The usual assessment centres, fitness and medical tests will still be conducted by police.
Last month, chief constable Chris Sims defended the use of consultants in the process.
He said: “The £188,000 spent is absolute value for money and it would have cost a lot more if we did not use them.”
In a statement, Mr Rowson added: “We correctly anticipated that the re-cruitment campaign would generate a huge amount of interest.
“That is why we sought the assistance of an experienced recruitment agency, TMP, to utilise their specialist skills in this area working alongside West Midlands Police staff.”