• by J Mitchell McMahon , March 2, 2009

As global unemployment levels  swell to scary levels, The Queensland Tourism Board is doing its part. One new job. It's not a million jobs, but it's not negative 100,000, which seems like the average figure every morning on the front page of the Gray Lady. And this is not just any job. It's the "Best Job in the World": A caretaker will serve the Commonwealth for six months by occupying a waterfront home overlooking the Whitsunday Islands and report on the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef.

Not a bad salary either: $150k au for the six-month contract, roughly 14 times the New York State maximum unemployment insurance (which was "insolvent two hours into 2009" according to the state's labor commissioner, by the way) payout.

They're using the standard Web 2.0 stuff - YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Applicants can surf through other applicants' videos, ranging from cornball pleadings to testimonials from those desperate to get out before it's too late. Reports of the Dream Job aired on cnn and bbc, and the Web site islandreefjob.com crashed on the second day. So while the qtb might not have been ready for primetime, it certainly got the attention of quite a few unemployed and destitute dreamers.