Tianjin short of domestic help over New Year holiday

Tianjin will face a major shortage of domestic helpers, who are largely migrant workers, over the upcoming Chinese New Year, Daily News has reported.

The shortage will be an estimated 100,000 workers, as many domestic helpers are planning to return home over the holiday, the report said.

Although the number of nannies has increased nearly 10 percent in the past two years, its 323,000 domestic helpers still cannot meet the demand, the city’s domestic service association told the newspaper.

They said the need for nannies usually reaches its peak when the lunar year is close to the end, as people hire housekeepers to clean before the New Year.

China’s New Year falls on Feb 10 this year.

“People are arranging their New Year cleaning much earlier this year,” said a housekeeper surnamed Zhang. “Now I serve two or three families everyday, which is backbreaking. The manager hopes I can keep doing it because we are already short of people.”

Prices for housekeeping in Tianjin has already seen an increase from Jan 9, when the average rate each hour raised from 25 to 30 yuan ($4 to $4.80), the report said.

Companies also offer favorable policies to their employees if they delay returning home.