Why F&B companies' workforce could be slowly rotting away

Workers are retiring in the next five years.

Singapore revealed it plans to spice up its food services industry by introducing a “major makeover” favoring a mass adoption of technology as workers will retire in the next 5-10 years.

Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam admitted progress had been slow in the domestic market-oriented sector, which includes food services. This is largely because a significant part of manpower in domestic services like F&B comprises older, lower-skilled workers.

“Most did not have the benefit of much education, but they are hardworking citizens, from the generation that grew up in the fifties and sixties. From a social perspective, it has not been a bad thing that they have been retained in the workforce, not displaced,” Tharman explained.

The Minister also said the manpower growth seen in food services in recent years is already a thing of the past as younger Singaporeans are not willing anymore to do low-skill jobs and many don’t stay long with a firm. The city-state likewise cannot continue to grow foreign manpower.

“We have to work on the basis that there will be no further manpower growth in the industry. The heavy reliance on low-skilled workers also cannot continue,” Tharman said.