As the Lunar New Year approaches, Beijing's household services market has moved into high gear: demand for cleaning, appliance servicing and maternal care has spiked, while suppliers scramble to fill vacancies. Firms and labour-exporting provinces are ramping up recruitment, training and cash incentives to keep homes and families served through the holiday rush.
For many front-line workers the surge is palpable. Zhao Song, who has worked as an appliance-cleaning technician in Beijing for two years, said orders began to climb in February and are already fully booked; he plans to delay returning home to maximise earnings. Firms report that hourly pay for home-service staff has risen by roughly 40–50% ahead of the holiday, as companies bid to retain crews amid high seasonal demand.
Platforms and agencies are responding with scale. A deputy general manager at a major household-services platform described new consumption drivers — from window cleaning and whole-home spring cleans to pet feeding — and said the company is recruiting aggressively: it aims to create 100,000 new household-cleaning roles across 110 cities and an additional 100,000 appliance-cleaning engineer positions.
Municipal statistics show why the scramble is necessary. Beijing authorities estimate a pre-holiday shortfall of about 6,000 workers in urgently needed roles such as maternal carers, home organisers and appliance technicians. Pay for maternal caregiving has climbed to around RMB 13,000 a month in the capital, a level that underscores both strong demand and the rising value of skilled domestic care. Sending provinces are offering incentives to plug gaps: training programmes, free first-week accommodation and travel reimbursements, and direct subsidies — for example, a RMB 2,000 retention payment for longer-term placements under the “Beijing–Inner Mongolia labour collaboration” scheme.
The pattern speaks to broader shifts in China’s economy and labour market. Urban households, facing longer working hours and higher living standards, are buying more services; an ageing population sustains demand for maternal and elder care. At the same time, the annual Spring Festival migration constrains supply just when demand peaks, forcing employers and local governments to coordinate interprovincial labour flows and to sweeten terms.
The immediate effect is better pay and more formalised recruitment for many domestic workers. But rapid hiring also raises questions about training quality, worker protections and the sustainability of higher costs. For employers and platforms, the challenge is converting a seasonal scramble into a steady, regulated market that can meet urban households’ growing appetite for services without eroding margins or labour standards.