A recent job ad for the shepherds in China garnered more than 700 applicants, including white-collar employees and university graduates.
Chinese farm owner Zuo Xiaoyong’s job ad for shepherds to work in the remote and rugged grasslands south of Mongolia became the day’s top trending social media post.
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.
“It seems ordinary people are having a hard time finding work,” said Zuo.
Cut-Throat, Low-Reward Job Market
While headline unemployment has hovered just above 5%, underemployment in China is rising, and private sector incomes have lagged economic growth for most of the past decade. Blue- and white-collar workers alike complain about the ‘996’ culture of working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
Analysts expect the labour market to worsen in coming months, as factories face higher costs due to the Iran war, while AI adoption accelerates, and a record 12.7 million university graduates this summer begin job hunting.
China’s 5% economic growth relies heavily on surging exports, as manufacturers sacrifice profits to gain market share worldwide, putting more pressure on workers back home.
‘Curse Of 35’
Half of the applicants were born in the 1990s, Zuo said, an age group at the centre of what Chinese workers call the ‘curse of 35,’ with studies showing most employers, including the public sector, overlook candidates older than that.
“We are seeing the ‘curse of 35’ move from a tech-sector meme to a broader economic reality,” said Christian Yao, senior lecturer in human resource management at Victoria University of Wellington.
In the end, Zuo hired four shepherds – two couples – who were all born in the 1980s and had previously worked on a farm. While he has kept 40 more couples on a shortlist, he says he will not consider singles or young urbanites for the roles.
(With inputs from Reuters)
