They were there to apply for jobs with 12 housekeeping service companies.

The job placement fair was announced last Friday, as housekeeping service companies are discovering that many of their recruits who come from rural or small towns outside Beijing will leave the capital for family reunions during the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, which will start on February 1.

According to the Chinese daily Beijing Morning Post, there will be vacancies in some 4,000 housekeeping positions.

Although Saturday's fair hopes to recruit some 1,296 people, the market is badly in need of more local Beijing residents to fill slots.

Lan Hong, an employee with the Beijing Gunan Housekeeping Service Co Ltd, initially doubted that many Beijingers would apply. She never expected to see so many local residents apply for the jobs. In two hours, all the application forms Lan brought to the fair were filled.

"It would be unthinkable just a few years ago because many local Beijingers felt some sort of shame in taking a housekeeping job, even a part-time one," Lan said.

Good applicants

Many of the applicants at the job fair had a try-it-and-see attitude and none of them have worked as a housekeeper before.

The attitude change has been attributed to the increasing loneliness and a feeling of uselessness among applicants where many have been forced to take early retirement or have been laid off during the restructuring of local industries.

A woman surnamed Wang, who would not give her full name, had just finished filling out the application for a job as a housekeeping service attendant when a representative from another company asked her if she could cook.

"Each family has its own taste for food, and I am not really sure if I can cook the dishes they like," Wang told the representative.

Wang lives near the service centre and decided to come after reading in newspapers about the large number of positions now open.

She was laid off more than a year ago.

"Except doing some family chores, I have been sitting idly watching TV all day along," she said.

She said she felt the holiday was a good opportunity for women like her to take housekeeping jobs.

"The holiday doesn't mean too much any more to me because my children all go to work and can only stay at home for a few days to be with me," she said. "I am alone most of the time and I am fed up with that and need to do something to engage myself."

Wang said that she forced herself to learn humility and come to the job fair.

"I will be modest if I become a housekeeper. If I hadn't changed my views on housekeepers, I would not have come today. Even in a factory or a company, the employer won't give you a salary if you don't do your job well."

The recruitment fair also drew many women from the suburbs of Beijing.

New chance

A woman surnamed Li, who also refused to give her name, stood with four women waiting for friends from the same village of Laiguangying in the Chaoyang District.

Two years ago, she was laid-off from a township enterprise and has stayed at home. Recently, she joined a training class organized by the local township government and learned how to care for babies, clean, cook, iron clothes and other housekeeping skills.

"The training has made me more professional," she said.

She was especially proud that she has earned a blue profession qualification certificate after taking an examination when she finished the training course.

According to recruiting companies, applicants with such certificates have an edge over the others.

Li said what she wanted most was a job.

"It is nearly impossible for a woman my age in my village to find a better job," she said.

She admitted that she still felt a little shy and uneasy coming to the job fair but said she'd stayed at home too long and she needs money.

Experienced worker

While housekeeping positions are just beginning to attract local Beijingers' as potential jobs, some have been doing it for years.

A 53-year-old woman surnamed Zheng, who also would not give her full name, has been a part-time housekeeper for nearly four years.

Zheng took early retirement from a factory years ago, when her son was still in high school and her family was short of money.

Her husband earned a meager salary from a factory job.

While doing some manual work at a company, she happened to hear that a family was looking for someone to do some cooking.

After a probation period, the family was very satisfied with her work and especially her cooking. She also does the shopping, washes clothes and does some cleaning.

She said she was really reluctant to take the job at first.

"I felt a little shameful and nervous," Zheng said.

When her family learned about her new job, they didn't object, but they were not very supportive either.

Today, she no longer feels uneasy about her job, she said. The couple she works for respects and trusts her and a lot more of her friends who were laid-off or are retired have also joined the profession.

"Now that I'm old, and it is time for me to save some money for my remaining years," Zheng said.

According to Wang Xiurong, an official with the housekeeping department of the Women's Development Centre in Beijing, most of the applicants only wanted part-time jobs.

The full-time positions that require applicants to live at the employer's home are still open, and migrant workers are most likely to apply for those, she added.

"It is awkward to live with another family," applicant Wang said. "No matter how late it will be, I can finish my work and then go back to my home. I have my own family, why should I live with another one?"

(China Daily December 16, 2002)