But, we've come a long way since the backbreaking work of the 1920s.

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In the countryside the men have the backbreaking work of farming without mechanisation: again, fuel is dear, and many powered irrigation systems have broken down.

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He was doing backbreaking work and hated it, but one co-worker's comment gave him food for thought: There were so many other jobs out there, you could conceivably work at a different one every day for of the rest of your life.

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Samasource takes work orders from a U.S. tech company, breaks them down into simple tasks it has dubbed microwork, and sends it off to a partner in say, the rural Indian state of Jharkhand, where most of the other jobs are low-paid, backbreaking work in the coal mines.

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Men methodically scythe the long grass, backbreaking and slow work.

BBC: Nomadic Kyrgyzstan