Take a look at this quick summary of current staffing conditions around LA. There are some great comments from multiple sources that give a sense of how clients are handling the return of staff.
After letting go of household staff this spring, elite Los Angeles homeowners are hiring again but with extra precautions and also sometimes extra work for employees.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nonprofit organization that monitors labor protections for housekeepers, nannies and home care assistants, confirms the downward employment trend, with more than 60 percent of private housekeepers across the U.S. reporting in an April NDWA survey that they were out of work.
But in the first week of August, the number reporting being out of work had fallen to 38 percent, and Kahn and others who oversee staffing agencies in Los Angeles say phones are ringing again. “Everything went quiet for about 30 to 45 days. After that, everybody realized that life goes on, and they’re wanting to return to a sense of normalcy,” says Melanie Karaian of Colonial Domestic Agency. “But they’re doing so with precautions.”
Those include initial Zoom interviews with follow-up meetings taking place on a patio or other outdoor area. Negative COVID-19 tests are expected from client and prospective employee prior to hiring. While requests for live-in housekeepers have increased — a new employee may be asked to self-quarantine in a separate section of the house for two weeks — live-out situations remain more common.
Read the full article: Constant Testing and New Demands: A Look at L.A. Housekeeping During COVID-19