(CNN) -- Amanda Mezyk had developed a close bond with her employers' children as their live-in nanny, which is why it was so painful when her bosses told her she was being laid off.

Amanda Mezyk, 20, lost her live-in nanny job when the recession forced her employers to cut the family budget.

"I started crying and they kept repeating, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'" Mezyk, 20, said about the day last November when her employers -- a Miami, Florida, plastic surgeon and a part-time dermatologist -- delivered the bad news.

"They sat me down in the living room -- where we usually would sit and talk about the kids -- and they told me that business was slow and they had to cut expenses."

As Mezyk began to realize that life as a virtual member of her employers' family was ending, she thought about the little girl and boy -- Delaney, 6, and Landon, 4 -- with whom she had grown so close during the past 2½ years.

Later, Landon found Mezyk crying in her bedroom and asked her what was wrong. "I told him I had to go away for a little while, and that I would come visit," she said.

"I was sad because I had to let the kids go," she said. "I love them like they were mine. And I want to be a part of their lives for the long run."

Her job as a live-in nanny at a lavish home in an upper-class, upscale private community came with many perks that suddenly had disappeared. The insured car provided by her employers for personal and professional use was gone. Without a steady income, Mezyk wondered how she would pay her mounting $8,000 credit card debt.

There would be no more accompanying the family on all-expenses-paid vacations to the Bahamas, Italy and China. The layoff also put an end to Mezyk's annual paid weeklong vacations.

To survive, Mezyk has moved in with a great-aunt and uncle until she can decide on her next move. iReport.com: Tell us what are you doing to survive bad economy?

Industry leaders said Mezyk is just one of thousands of nannies who've been swallowed up by the shifting landscape in the U.S. child care industry, one that is affecting not just nannies, but baby sitters and day care centers as well.

The economic booms during the late 1990s and from 2004 to 2007 made it possible for more middle-class and upper middle-class American families to employ nannies, said Genevieve Thiers, founder of Sittercity.com.

"Now that we're back in recession, families are unfortunately having to cut back on their nannies' hours or unfortunately having to let go of their nannies, and it's not a good situation."

In a poll of parents who use Sittercity.com, 17 percent said the economy is forcing them to end their time as a stay-at-home parent and return to work. Twenty-seven percent of the parents in the survey said the economy was forcing them to work more hours at their current jobs.

"Business is down a good 45 percent," said Jennifer Winter, 37, owner of Nannies in Miami, a nanny placement agency. "The wealthy are still hanging on to their nannies, but the economy is forcing middle-class parents to make cuts."

Annie Davis, who launched Annie's Nannies Household Staffing in Seattle, Washington, in 1984, described the current recession as "the weirdest time I think I've seen in my lifetime." She's seen about 10 percent of her active nanny roster laid off since last October.

"There are nannies being laid off in families where both parents work and one parent has lost their job," said Candi Wingate of nannies4hire.com and babysitters4hire.com.

Baby-sitting 'a godsend' in recession

The recession also is forcing more non-working parents in single-income families to take jobs outside the home.

As a result, many formerly
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