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 — which drew 59 million views within ?hours on Weibo, China’s version of X, where it generated 21,000 different discussion threads — 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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