The nanny crunch!

Not so long ago we were blogging about how much nannies are in demand... and now we are seeing a distinctive change in the market all down to the recent upheaval in the financial sector.

Thanks to the collapse of a number of long established banking and finance companies many of London's finance workers have faced income cuts and job losses. Unfortunately as a direct result of this London's hard working in home staff will suffer, including nannies.

The current situation? While it looks as though the job market for nannies is busy as ever, there is hesitation in the air and negotiations for the top pay rates are tougher. There are more nannies in the market so competition is rife- you need to really excel in order to convince parents you are both better than the others and worth the rate you are charging.

What will this mean? We are yet to see the full effects of the credit crunch on the nanny industry. It could mean an overall decrease in pay rates or a move to more part time roles available in the market.

We hope the market proves resilient and are crossing our fingers that all of our fantastic families and nannies are secure in their jobs. We will also be looking forward with interest to the publication of the nannytax annual wage survey in Feb 09, which should give us a clearer indication of the true effect of the credit crunch on the nanny industry.