Guangzhou families are suffering a shortage of between 40,000 and 50,000 domestic helpers as most migrant workers are preparing to return home for the annual Spring Festival.

This seasonal shortage has been worsening in recent years, with a growing number of parents flying in to meet their children in Guangzhou for the festival, thus requiring more hands for household chores, the Guangzhou Daily cited Tian Xin, vice head of the city's housekeeping association, as saying.

Mr. Xue, who moved with his family to Guangzhou from northern China recently, said he had invited his mother to join him for the festival this year.

"My wife and I are up to the eyes in work. I need a housekeeper to take care of my mother in her 80s," he said. But he was disappointed, after a housekeeping agency told him it could not help him as its employees had left for their own hometowns.

A housekeeping company said it received more than 20 calls for housekeepers each day.

The housekeeping service center under the city's women's association said about half of its 3,000 to 4,000 employees like to stay during the festival, most of whom are young people.

Many agencies have been bracing for the shortage months ago by providing domestic helpers extra incentives like festival bonuses and get-togethers for them.

Some agencies, including the housekeeping service center under the city's women's association, are trying to employ Guangzhou's laid-off workers as part-time housekeepers for the festival.

"The laid-off workers are Guangzhou residents, easy to communicate and more familiar with the city than migrant workers," an official with the center said.

(Shenzhen Daily January 10, 2006)