Nannie auction bids for domestic bliss

JINAN - Around 40 families showed up at an unusual auction in east China's Shandong province, to bid for the services of eight nannies.

Sunday's event in Jinan city was organized to focus public attention to growing demand in the domestic service industry and attract more workers. The nanny services were sold for monthly wages ranging from 15,500 yuan (over $2,500) to 5,200 yuan.

Preview for 2014: Baby boom

The domestic service industry reemerged in the 1990s, when urban Chinese families could afford to hire staff, including maids and nannies. Since then, domestic service has been an important part of urban family life.

Tian Hua, director of Shandong Tiangong Human Resource Service Center, believes that demand for home helps will grow along with the economy, urbanization and the relaxed birth control policy. A bigger urban population and higher living standards mean people are paying attention to the quality of their family life, he said, especially care for the eldest and youngest family members.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, urbanization reached 53.7 percent last year -- some 730 million people.

Wan Zhong, director of Shandongdasao domestic service training, hopes the new birth control policy will push up the demand for his trainees.

In December 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislature, approved the decision to allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. The policy is already up and running in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui.