Inner Mongolia Sheep Farm Receives 1,000+ Applications for $30,000/Year Herding Job

An April advertisement for a two-person sheep-herding job in Inner Mongolia offered a combined monthly salary of 16,000 yuan ($2,400) with free food, accommodation and Wi-Fi. The posting drew millions of views and hundreds of applications within days. One related Weibo hashtag accumulated 59 million views.

Zuo Xiaoyong, the 45-year-old owner of the sheep farm, received more than 1,000 applications in the first 48 hours after the ad appeared. About 10 percent of applicants held university degrees. Most came from farmers, factory workers and recent graduates in major Chinese cities.

3 percent. 7 million students are graduating from Chinese universities this year. 5 percent to 11 percent over the same period.

The job requires herding, feeding and counting 3,000 sheep across nearly 50 square miles on horseback or motorbike. Zuo turned down a recent university graduate in his early 20s from southern China, citing concern that the applicant would not endure the isolation. He hired a couple with prior shepherding experience and offered them a combined annual salary of about 200,000 yuan ($30,000).

7 million, according to official data. Zuo noted that many young applicants appeared uninterested in marriage and focused first on securing income. Weibo users posted mixed reactions.

” and another adding, “It is a very tiring job! ” Zuo described the appeal of the grasslands setting. “There are no arguments or deception here, no complicated workplace relationships like in the big companies,” he said.