As the Spring Festival draws near, 30-year-old father Yang Yiping is becoming increasingly worried: He needs to find a substitute nanny to look after his baby daughter during China's most important traditional festival. His previous nanny packed up and left.

"It seems the whole city is looking for nannies," says he, who has approached almost all the top nanny agencies across Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province.

Equally anxious are the agencies in Guangzhou. "Guangzhou lacks some 70,000 housekeepers and the shortage will worsen in the coming few days," says Chen Ting, president of Guangdong Household Management Association. About 60 percent of the household workers are heading home and won't return to their jobs until the Lantern Festival on February 21.

The baby boom in 2007 has intensified the demand for childcare workers or housekeepers, Chen says. For many Chinese, 2007, the Year of the Pig, was an auspicious time to enlarge a family.

Chen's association encourages members to share information and abide by service and price standards. "In this way, the childcare workers or housekeepers in lesser known agencies will have more employment opportunities," he notes.

Tian Xin, general manager of Guangzhou Zhengxianghe Housekeeping Service Co, one of the largest suppliers of household staff in Guangzhou, says her agency last week was flooded by more 100 calls on a single day. The callers all wanted full-time nannies. "We are looking for local workers and offering pay rises and bonuses to migrant workers," Tian says.

Other big cities in Guangdong are facing the same problem. In Shenzhen, another economic powerhouse of the province, the shortage is estimated to reach 120,000 during the Spring Festival.

(China Daily January 21, 2008)