Chinese farm owner Zuo Xiaoyong was stunned to see his job ad for shepherds to work in the remote and rugged grasslands south of Mongolia become the day¡¯s top trending social media post.
More than 700 people applied for the two positions, including white-collar employees from megacities Shanghai and Chongqing, factory workers across China?and even university graduates. The response to Zuo¡¯s late April ad ¡ª which drew 59 million views within ?hours on Weibo, China¡¯s version of X, where it generated 21,000 different discussion threads ¡ª reveals the growing strains in the country¡¯s job market.
¡°I ?didn¡¯t expect ?it to go viral,¡± Zuo said, adding that a 10th of the applicants had just finished university, while others ?had debt, grinding industrial jobs?or were worn down by workplace politics.?¡°It seems ordinary people are having a hard time finding work.¡±
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