Note 238 — Chapter VI · DIFFICULTIES IN DOMESTIC SERVICE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE EMPLOYER

“In advertising recently for a general housework girl twelve answered the advertisement. Advertising the same week for my former servant, twenty-two ladies applied personally and twelve others wrote that a girl was wanted. Although I told each of the twenty-two that if the girl were even fair I would keep her myself, only two hesitated on that account to try to secure her.”

The report of a large employment bureau for the year 1889 is as follows:

Number of employers registered 1,512

Number of employees registered 1,541

Number of employers supplied with servants 1,366

Number of employees supplied with situations 1,375

The number of employees registered exceeds the number of employers, but many register who are incompetent to fill the position they seek, and therefore many employers are without servants. The bureau regrets “its inability at times to supply with competent help the large number of patrons.”

Another bureau reports 2,659 applications from employers, only 2,099 of which could be filled.

Still another bureau filling about three thousand positions annually reports that at times it has had six hundred applications from employers in excess of the number that could be filled with competent applicants for work.

The domestic employment bureau connected with the Boston Young Women’s Christian Association reports for the year ending 1890:

Orders registered 2,120

Orders filled 1,753