City families lose domestic helpers over festival

Urban families are facing the annual shortage of domestic helpers over the upcoming Spring Festival, as household service providers, mostly migrant workers, return home to see family over the Chinese New Year Holiday.

Domestic service agencies in Shanghai have received extra requests to hire domestic helpers or nannies during the Spring Festival, which starts on Feb 10 this year.

Xia Jun, general manager of Shanghai-based Aijun Home Service, said the company has seen a gradual increase in bookings for Spring Festival services since early January.

Xia said the demand for casual labor, which rises dramatically ahead of the holiday, has led to hourly wages tripling during the seven days of Spring Festival, compared with ordinary work days.

Still, many domestic helpers choose to go home to see family instead of staying in the cities for the higher pay.

"Basically, about 70 percent of our staff will go home and the rest will be booked in advance," said an employee at Shanghai Achieve-Easy Housekeeping Services.

The periodic shortage has left urban families with a pressing need to find domestic help, especially those with babies or sick or elderly people to care for.

He Jiajing, a mother from Shanghai, has a domestic helper to clean and cook plus a nanny to help take care of her two sons, a 4-year-old and 10-month-old. But both helpers will return to their home towns in Anhui and Heilongjiang provinces, leaving the young mother frustrated.

"I have tried to find nannies locally in Shanghai, but failed. They need to get together with their families too," she said.