A lone worker toils at a construction site. Many migrant workers have returned to their homes for the harvest, which caused a labor shortage in some parts of Beijing. [Wang Jing / China Daily]
Service industries in Beijing are facing a shortage of employees as migrant workers flow back home for the harvest season.
"Nearly half of our housekeepers have left to harvest wheat and we have to hire more people to provide service," said a manager surnamed Hou with the Anjia Homemaking Co, one of the largest providers of domestic workers in the city.
The company employs more than 1,000 people. Many of its workers from south China returned home beginning in early May and others whose hometowns are in the north began departing in June.
Hou said most of his workers are from rural areas and many of them choose to go home to help their families in the summer rather than take leave during Spring Festival.
"Compared with their salary on normal days, they also can earn 20 percent more during the Spring Festival," she said.
"In my hometown, seldom do people use harvesting machines because our fields are located in mountain areas. Our farmland is not as flat as that of northern China, so many things still depend on our hands," said Li Xueqin, a 28-year-old nanny whose hometown is in a remote area of Hunan province.
Li will be back next week. "I have a 5-year-old brother. He is too young to help," she said.
Apart from the homemaking industry, security staff in residential areas and parking lots are also in short supply because of the harvests.
Some management companies have launched new recruiting initiatives.
A worker surnamed Shi from the Tiantongyuan Residential Management Co told Beijing News that the company provides seven days of holiday to every security guard for gathering crops.
"One of the security guards from Henan province in our residential area went back home and the management company arranged a replacement" said Ma Yuan, a resident of the Bolin residential area in Chaoyang district.
"I've heard that he went home for the harvest and will be back a week later," he said.
An official from a Beijing job agency who declined to be named predicted that fewer migrant workers will return home for harvests in the future.
"The younger generation will be the mainstay of the service industry," he said.
"Their family income will mainly depend on working in urban areas rather than farming."
