diff --git a/fetch.ts b/fetch.ts
index 5fd63f9..7fc6338 100644
--- a/fetch.ts
+++ b/fetch.ts
@@ -275,7 +275,13 @@ export function requiresGerman(text: string): boolean {
 export async function fetchDescription(id: string): Promise<string | null> {
   for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 3; attempt++) {
     try {
-      await Bun.sleep(350 * (attempt + 1));
+      // 429s need the same backoff as the listing-page retry (1s/2s/4s) — the
+      // old 350/700/1050ms wait was too short under concurrent load, so this
+      // exhausted its retries while still rate-limited and fell through to the
+      // "can't read it, so keep" default below, letting German postings (e.g.
+      // CLEEVEN, job 4465075383, all-German with zero English content) slip
+      // past isViableContent entirely on 2026-09-10.
+      await Bun.sleep(1000 * 2 ** attempt);
       const res = await fetch(`https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/${id}/`, { headers: HEADERS });
       const html = await res.text();
       const m = html.match(/class="show-more-less-html__markup[^"]*">([\s\S]{0,8000}?)<\/div>/);
@@ -307,7 +313,8 @@ export async function isEnglishContent(id: string): Promise<boolean> {
   // false "English" result. Back off and try again before falling back.
   for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 3; attempt++) {
     try {
-      await Bun.sleep(350 * (attempt + 1));
+      // Same 1s/2s/4s backoff as fetchDescription — see its comment.
+      await Bun.sleep(1000 * 2 ** attempt);
       const res = await fetch(`https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/${id}/`, { headers: HEADERS });
       const html = await res.text();
       const m = html.match(/class="show-more-less-html__markup[^"]*">([\s\S]{0,8000}?)<\/div>/);