Fact check: False. That figure is comparing the total number of applicants to the match with (first year) residency spots. But the total number of applicants to the match is not the same things as students accepted to (U.S.) medical schools. Foreign medical grads are dying to get trained in the States.

If you read on in your link, you'll see that "[t]he PGY-1 match rate for U.S. seniors was 94.3 percent", while the match rate for non-U.S. medical school graduates is slightly above 50%.

Again from your link:

"This year, 35,969 active applicants vied for 28,849 first-year and 2,908 second-year (including physician (R)) residency positions. U.S. allopathic medical school senior students comprised 18,539 of the active applicants, 352 more than in 2016. "

US medical school graduates have no problems matching, the ~5% who don't usually do so because of their match application strategy, and have the opportunity to scramble at unfilled positions (of which there are ~1300).

That's by design, and not in some secretive, nefarious way. People will drop out of med school.

There is also a lot of residency spots that go unfilled. I know infectious disease is struggling to get bodies into spaces.

The drop out rate for med school is under 5%. Infectious disease is a 3 year fellowship that's done after completing a 3 year internal medicine residency. Oddly, the average salary for infectious disease specialists is lower than that of internal medicine physicians. Economically, it doesn't make sense for internal medicine physicians to spend 3 years doing a fellowship only to make less money on the other end. On top of that, these physicians are missing out on an attending's salary during those 3 years of fellowship.

Yes some drop out and residency positions go unfilled, but please see Figure 1!

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Main-Match-Re...