Is this the world's hardest job vacancy to fill?

A small town in New Zealand is proving to be a turn-off for candidates, with a $400,000 (£189,000)-plus salary and half the business still not enough to fill a position that has been advertised for two years.

Dr Alan Kenny, who operates the GP practise in Tokoroa, New Zealand, posted job adverts online after four successive recruitment firms could not find a jobseeker to take the positon. His practise, Tokoroa Family Health, has seen the number of patients exceed the recommended number of 25 per GP by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. 

The salary on offer is more than double the average income of a GP, with expenses on top, as well as no weekend or night work. On top of this, house prices there are amongst the lowest in the country - so why has there been no takers?  

Kenny attributes it to a perception that practising in a rural area is a dead-end job. Location is as important to candidates as the job itself. It may be easy selling a capital city to a jobseeker, but a recruiter’s mettle is tested with smaller locations that don’t have a commonly-accepted allure.