It is estimated that Shenzhen will need a total of 300,000 domestic helpers next year.

You Feng, vice director of Shenzhen Domestic Helpers Service Association, said Shenzhen had a demand for 230,000 domestic helpers this year and the shortfall was about 100,000.

"This is probably the first year that the city has experienced a short supply of domestic helpers," Li Ziyi, a manager of Shenzhen-based Anzi Domestic Helper Agency, said Tuesday.

She said the number of people who had visited her agency in the hope of getting a job since early October had decreased drastically, compared with the same period in previous years.

"In the past, we introduced an average of 30 jobs in our agency every day during the months of October and November. But so far we issue about 10 referrals a day," she said.

Li's observations are shared by many in the city's domestic help industry. Figures released at a recent forum sponsored by the municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference show that Shenzhen is short of 100,000 domestic helpers.

Zhong Xiaoyu, a member of the CPPCC Shenzhen committee, attributed the short supply to three reasons.

Some people regarded domestic help as a low job and there was also a lack of publicity about domestic help. The Central Government policy to greatly reduce taxation for farmers was another reason.

The main source of domestic helpers for Shenzhen is the vast countryside.

Zhong said the Central Government tax policy now enabled farmers in many areas to make a few thousand yuan a year and therefore the incentive to work in cities as domestic helpers had been weakened.

Some speakers at the forum pointed out that many people failed to pay due respect to and even looked down on domestic helpers working for them.

"That is part of the reason we're having fewer domestic helpers," said Zhong.

Chen Jiyu, another CPPCC Shenzhen committee member, suggested the government pay more attention to the industry. "It would be better if the government helped run training agencies for domestic helpers and there should also be laws for the industry," he said.

 (Shenzhen Daily November 25, 2004)