If you need a reminder that Chinese New Year is coming, try booking a maid. It's virtually impossible to hire a live-in family maid at this time of year, when most migrant workers leave town for the holidays.

University students, who apply to be part-time household workers, introduce themselves to potential employers at a job fair in Beijing last year. [China Daily]

Maids are in high demand among Beijing's swelling middle class, yet there is a shortage of service, a high turnover rate, and the profession remains highly unstable, according to Wang Jun, manager of a company which employs migrant workers from northwestern China to work as live-in maids in Beijing.

Every year, 300,000 migrant workers come to Beijing to fill service roles, but most switch to factory jobs or other skilled professions after a year or two, Wang says.

There is currently a shortage of 30,000 maids in the city, says Li Dajing of the Beijing Household Service Association, who was quoted in the Beijing Evening News.

Being a maid is not a popular choice of career among locals because many consider it demeaning, says Li Yifen, head of a household service company in Beijing.

A household service company representative in Beijing introduces rules and payment to newly arrived migrant workers. [China Daily]

Qi Fenfen left rural Gansu province three years ago at the age of 21 to become a live-in maid in Beijing. She spends up to 18 hours every day cleaning, cooking and taking care of her employer's family in exchange for board, meal and a monthly salary of 1,440 yuan ($200).

In keeping with the Chinese tradition of emphasizing family relations, Qi addresses her employer, usually the wife in the house, as "sister" or "auntie". But she feels anything but part of the family. She says she feels "inferior and alienated".

Wang Jun explains that housekeeping and caretaking are often considered to have a lower social status than waitressing. He says some people think they own the maid, rather than regarding the employment as a mutually beneficial service relationship.

"Family maids are under tremendous pressure. They are sometimes mistreated," Wang says. "It's a job that requires exceptional tolerance and forbearance."

Luo Weiwei came to Beijing a year ago from Gansu province at the age of 18. Although Luo disliked being ordered around, she put up with it because she needed a job. Even so, she quit her job recently because it was "going nowhere".

She wants more. Luo will start working in an electronic factory in Beijing after spending the Spring Festival back home. Having dropped out of junior high school at 16, she now wants to study computing.

A household service company representative in Beijing introduces rules and payment to newly arrived migrant workers. Wu Qiang

She thinks the patience and stress-handling ability she learned from being a maid will help her achieve her goals.

Like Luo, Qi feels limited by her work. She thinks the most frustrating part of being a family maid is not getting out enough. Most maids choose not to go out on the weekends to earn extra money. "I have very little contact with the outside world," she says.