Obsession, the most fun job in China, and a new green card policy

The NPR Indicator team opens with a wish: that it were Friday, so they could do their "indicators of the week" segment. Wish granted. The episode covers three unrelated but revealing economic stories — a viral job posting in China, a rare box office anomaly for a low-budget horror film, and a Trump administration policy change that could upend how legal immigrants get green cards.

700 people applied to herd sheep in rural China

Darian Woods reports that roughly 700 people applied for two shepherd positions in rural China, according to Reuters. Some applicants held university degrees. The job posting went viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and the flood of interest tells a story that official statistics may not capture.

China's official unemployment rate sits at 5.2 percent, which is not recession territory. But Woods notes that "Chinese statistics are notoriously hard to trust," and the anecdote reveals how many people feel about the economy beneath the surface. Good jobs exist, but the conditions are often punishing. One applicant who spoke to Reuters had been working in a factory making shipping containers, fastening screws for more than 13 hours a day. That kind of grind — known in China as "996" (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) — makes the pastoral life look appealing.