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Workers are watching livestreams to find jobs on China’s TikTok - Rest of World

restofworld.org · 816 words · saved by 1 readers

Chinese livestream apps have become an unlikely destination for blue-collar workers searching for jobs.

With a smartphone in his hand, Xiao Simu walked through a massive carrot field in Shuangliao, a city in northeastern China near the border with North Korea. In the livestream, made in September, he showed dozens of workers harvesting carrots in the sun. A comment asked how much the carrots cost. “We don’t sell carrots,” the 34-year-old replied. “We are hiring people to pull out the carrots.” Xiao, who runs a recruitment agency in Jilin province, began hiring workers in August through short-video app Kuaishou. He livestreams for up to four hours a day, advertising jobs harvesting carrots,…

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