BEIJING - Ms. Jiang from Xuhui district of Shanghai now regrets dismissing her baby's nanny a month ago, because during her "nanny hunt" over Spring Festival she found the prices to be almost double what she had been paying.

"The salary for the former one was 2,800 yuan (about $317) a month, but I was asked to pay 5,000 yuan for hiring a nanny during the festival, which I cannot afford," said Jiang.

However, the lucrative pay rises on offer during the periodic shortage did not not stop the nation's household service providers, mostly migrant workers, heading home for family reunions during the Spring Festival. With the most important holiday in China lasting from January 22 to January 28, the accompanying travel rush left urban families in severe want of domestic help. As many nannies and carers are yet to return to work in cities, it remains to be seen how the gaps will be filled.

Spring Festival drain of domestic help

"Eighty percent of our staff have gone home, the rest have been reserved in advance," said Zhao Cuizhen, a member of staff at the Shanghai Jinguoyuan Home Service Company, a leading local household service company.

Figures from the Shanghai Household Services Association (SHSA) show that the city has a total of 500,000 home service practitioners, while over 95 percent of them are non-locals and nearly half returned to their hometown during the festival.

The immediate impact of nannies going home during the Spring Festival is a significant pay rise across the country. Guo Dongmei, a nanny from Changzhi city of North Shangxi province, said she could earn 2,200 yuan during the festival, roughly 40 percent more than usual.

For urban families grappling with tedious housework without anyone giving a hand, it is particularly difficult for those with screaming babies to feed or sick parents to look after.

"I had to find another nanny for my disabled father during the Spring Festival," said Chen Jie in Beijing, complaining of a home in chaos after the previous nanny left ahead of the festival.

Even allowing for Spring Festival, the nation's care-givers are in short supply compared to swelling demand.

The shortfall is exaggerated by inflating demand for housemaids as a result of a fast-aging urban population, and the rush by Chinese women of child-bearing age to give birth in 2012's Year of the Dragon, the dragon being a revered totem and a symbol of royalty and fortune, according to China's lunar calendar.

In Harbin, capital city of northern Heilongjiang province, expecting mothers and those who plan to have babies this year had made reservations for babysitters even before the Lunar New Year.

In the city of Tianjin, the current shortfall of nannies is estimated at 40,000 by Tan Hongli, head of the Tianjin Household Services Association. "It is especially care-givers for seniors and 24-hour-service housemaids that are in dire need," Tan explained.

The country now has a total of 178 million people over 60 years of age, accounting for 13.26 percent of the total population. It is estimated that the elderly population will reach 221 million in 2015 and 243 million in 2020, a recent State Council statement said.

However, compared to well-paid babysitters, especially those who take care of newborns, care-givers for seniors assume tougher work with less pay, making the job less attractive and the supply-demand gap wider.

In addition, Chen Xizhu, director of the SHSA, attributed the "nanny shortage" to easier access to jobs and higher incomes back at migrant workers' homes, whereas the escalating cost of living in large cities might make them think twice about relocating.

Solutions to worsening problem

Among the nannies returning home, some may come back to work, some may not. Chen Jie said of his search for a care-giver for his disabled father, "What bothers me most is that we've just got used to one nanny, but now we have to find another and start all over again."

Zhao Cuizhen said the biggest headache facing domestic service companies is the volatility of employees, with workers in this field generally not tied to contracts and free to pick and choose jobs, come and go as they please. Statistics show that 94 percent out of some 3,000 housemaid agencies operate under such brokering systems.

Shanghai University professor Gu Jun suggested home service companies change their business models to become employers, rather than agents, making housemaids legally bound by labor contracts.

The Shanghai government has rolled out policies to foster such employment-based domestic service companies, exempting them from business tax for the first three years, according to a policy in effect since October 1, 2011.

The municipal labor authority also doles out subsidies for various household service training programs offered to migrant workers in response to the growing need for higher-end housemaids and stewards.

Gu also said he believes a cure for the "festival nanny shortage" could be found in granting citizenship to migrant workers.

"Only when cities open up wider to migrant workers so that they move their families in can the on-and-off labor shortage be truly cured," said Gu.

"The government should hasten perfecting its laws and sector standards on the household service industry," added Liu Minghui, a household service professor with the China Women's University.