In China, university toppers compete for 2 posts after leaving corporate jobs to become shepherds.

China, the world’s second largest economy, is currently going through a very strange and serious job crisis. The poor working culture and mental stress among the youth here is such that people are ready to leave good jobs in the glittering cities and work as shepherds (sheep herders) in remote and isolated villages. An advertisement for a job as a shepherd in the rugged grasslands near the Mongolian border has gone so viral on Chinese social media that it has exposed the bitter truth of the country’s labor market and the frustration of the youth in front of the whole world. Only 2 vacancies and more than 700 candidates applied The whole thing started when Zuo Xiaoyong, a farm owner in the grasslands in the southern part of Inner Mongolia, took out an advertisement requiring just two shepherds for his pasture. Xiaoyong had no idea that his simple advertisement would become a topic of national discussion across the country. This advertisement went so viral overnight on China’s famous social media platform ‘Weibo’ that within a few hours it was viewed more than 5.9 crore times and more than 21,000 discussion threads were started on it. The most surprising thing was that more than 700 youth from big cities like Shanghai and Chongqing applied for just 2 posts. White-collar employees and university toppers also in the race According to farm owner Zuo, those who applied are not common unemployed people, but white-collar (corporate) employees of big companies, tired workers of factories and recently passed out toppers and graduates from universities. Of the total applicants, 10 percent were completely new youth. The applicants say that they are so fed up with huge debts, tiring factory shifts and dirty office politics that they now want to live a peaceful life by grazing sheep. The farm owners themselves were surprised to see how much mental torture it has become for the Chinese youth to find even a single job. What is the work and how much salary are you getting? A major reason for this job being attractive is its salary and facilities: Salary: 8,000 Yuan (about Rs 1.1 lakh) will be given every month for this work. Other facilities: Free accommodation and food (groceries) will be provided. Comparison: The national urban average salary in China’s private companies is around 6,000 yuan (about 84 thousand rupees), which means this shepherd job is paying much more than the average salary. Challenges of work: Although this work is not as easy as it seems. In summer, 3,000 sheep will have to be herded alone in 2,000 hectares of open and rugged pasture. At the same time, in winter, when the temperature in Mongolia drops below minus 30 degrees Celsius (-30°C), then the heavy and tiring work of feeding sheep and cleaning excrement will have to be done indoors in the harsh cold. Stifling ‘996’ work culture and ’35 year curse’ According to government data, the unemployment rate in China is around 5 percent, but the reality is very scary. The real problem is China’s deadly ‘996’ work culture. This means working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. 21-year-old James Guo, who applied for this job, said that he used to work 13 hours a day tightening screws in a container manufacturing factory, due to which he got blisters on his hands and he did not even get time to go to the washroom. At the same time, Wu, a 28-year-old female employee who earns 10,000 yuan in the e-commerce sector, said that she wants to run away from the blind race of urban life and corporate toxicity. Apart from this, the ‘Curse of 35’ is swallowing the youth in China’s job market. Half of the 700 applicants were people born in the 1990s. In China, companies in both government and private sectors shy away from hiring candidates above 35 years of age considering them old. The situation is going to worsen in the coming months, because this summer 1.27 crore new graduates will enter the market in search of jobs, while AI is already eating up human jobs. Who finally got this ‘premium’ job? Despite so many educated and urban applicants, farm owner Zuo did not hire any urban youth or bachelor. They finally hired four people (two married couples) with prior experience in farming and agriculture, who were born in the 1980s. Rejecting the urban youth, Zuo clearly said, "This is not a tourist or reels making place. This area is so secluded that you will not see any other human being for an entire year. The modern youth of the city cannot tolerate such extreme cold and terrible loneliness even for two days, hence experience and stability have been given priority."