Over 6,700 F&B Positions Available & Not All Requires You To Stand For Long Hours Or Serve Customers

I have good and bad news.

The good news is that there are thousands of jobs available. The bad news is that some of them require you to work long hours and on the weekends.

Yes, I know. It’s like offering you 100 cups of free bubble tea and telling you that at least 70% of those cups have a fingernail in it.

Anyone who has worked in the F&B industry will tell you that it’s not an easy job.

In addition to the long hours, you’ll have to stand until your legs disintegrate and deal with customers whom you would much rather punch in the face than serve food.

This is why F&B businesses have always struggled to attract Singaporean workers.

But with Covid-19 running around town seizing jobs, we might just have to turn to the F&B sector for a job.

And the good news is that there are many available, and not all of them requires you to stand for long hours or serve customers.

Besides waiters and chefs, there are also other roles like business development, food technologist, manufacturing manager and more of such positions available.

MOM: Over 6,700 F&B Positions Available 

Over 800 companies have offered more than 6,700 jobs and training opportunities, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Monday (21 Sep).

Most of these openings are for jobs, including roles for chefs and managers.

In fact, 44% of the job opportunities are for professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs), according to TODAY.

The pay range for these roles is around S$2,300 a month for chefs to slightly more than S$6,000 for manufacturing managers.

Non-PMET roles such as supervisors, bakers, general foremen, and salespersons were also available, with a pay range of around S$1,500 for waiters to close to S$2,800 for supervisors and general foremen (food processing).

Over 1,800 individuals have taken up jobs in the F&B industry between April and July, said MOM, 56% of whom were aged 40 and above.

Most were employees in the middle of their careers who entered the sector through career conversion programmes.

Unemployment Highest In Ten Years

What might compel workers to enter the F&B industry is the high number of retrenchments forced by the Covid-19 crisis.

In fact, the unemployment rate climbed to the highest in a decade in the first quarter, reported CNA.

Job vacancies have also dwindled, as businesses struggle to stay afloat.

Working in the F&B industry may not be attractive to some, but right now, it may be one of the few viable options to make a living.

Transferable Skills in the F&B Sector

But what about those already in the F&B industry? Can they survive?

F&B companies who invested in automation before the pandemic were best equipped to deal with the virus, as they were able to meet business demands during the circuit breaker.

Many companies who supplied food to hotels, restaurants, and cafes, however, were not as lucky, seeing a 40 to 90% drop in sales.

So, what will happen to workers in this industry? If so many F&B businesses are crumbling, where will they turn to for work?

Fortunately, as MOM pointed out, there are transferable skills in some of these sectors, which can improve job prospects for mid-career workers.

In food services, for example, transferable skills include customer service and food product marketing.

In food manufacturing, they include operation management, workplace safety and health, and strategy development.

Traineeships & Attachments

Ok, so maybe you’re interested in joining the F&B industry, but you have little experience.

What do you do then?

MOM said workers with little or no prior experience can consider company-hosted traineeships and attachments, as well as training courses under the SGUnited Skills programme.

Nearly 80 people have already enrolled in these traineeships and programmes since April, which arms job seekers with industry-relevant skills.

You might want to check out the #SGUnited Jobs and Skills website for more information.

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