‘Laborious, difficult, draining’: Why youths are shunning part-time F&B, retail roles in favour of more meaningful gigs

Five years ago, Mr Vincent Seah had his first taste of work life when he worked as a part-time cook at a sushi bar.
It was earnest work that allowed the 16-year-old at the time to earn extra pocket money, while gaining some valuable work experience that he will need when he enters the workforce after he comes of age.
However, the work was also backbreaking, repetitive and involved long hours. He found it difficult to keep up with its demands, especially during peak periods.
The part-time hours were not flexible enough, because there was a minimum commitment of three days a week that he needed to clock.
“Since then, I’ve looked for roles that offer more adaptability and align more directly with my field of study,” he said.
Now a 21-year-old polytechnic student pursuing a diploma in sports and exercise science, Mr Seah juggles school with working part-time as an instructor and brand ambassador for two private gyms here.
As a brand ambassador, his role includes social media marketing and management of the gym during his shift.
The gigs have no minimum hours requirement and pays better than in the food-and-beverage (F&B) sector, though he declined to say how much more.
And instead of occasionally bungling up orders during peak periods while working in a fast-paced kitchen, he finds greater personal fulfilment in making connections within the fitness community.
Like Mr Seah, some young people are shunning the F&B and retail industries when they look for a source of extra pocket money or a way to meaningfully spend a long school break. These businesses often rely on part-time workers due to the relatively lower level of skills required for the job.
Rather than work as service crews in fast-food restaurants or as salespersons in retail chains, they are choosing to take on part-time or gig roles such as instructors for spin-cycling classes, pet-sitters, childminders, or any other role more aligned with their passions or intended career paths.
Noting that this trend has been continuing for some time, several business owners told CNA TODAY that this has further exacerbated the perennial manpower shortage that they have been facing, with some concerned about the sustainability of their own ventures.
Mr Aminurrashid Hasnordin, chef and co-founder of F&B business The Social Outcast, said that attracting young part-timers has been getting increasingly difficult in recent years, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 made it particularly hard for businesses to attract younger part-timers.
“In 2019 was bad. Now, it’s much worse.” 
To find out what is behind this phenomenon, CNA TODAY spoke to eight youths who are still schooling on the possible reasons why these hands-on jobs are shunned in favour of other kinds of work.
Besides wanting higher pay and better hours, several youths said they want to make more meaningful use of their time and seek more fulfilling experiences for their part-time work.
This means that laborious, difficult and repetitive work, such as those often found in the F&B and retail sectors, tend to be less popular, they said.
There is no need to take on such roles when there are many other options outside of F&B and retail that offer better pay as well and that do not require shift work. Work does not have to be menial and can be fun, they added.
One polytechnic student, 17-year-old H Sim, told CNA TODAY: “Personally, I find customer service to be rather frustrating. And I heard that work in the (services) industries can be quite tiring.”
That was why last year, he decided to sign on as a temporary administrative worker in the human resource department of a public hospital so that he does not need to deal with customers.
Also describing work in retail and F&B services as “repetitive and draining”, full-time national serviceman Ow Fu Yang, 19, has been offering childminding services before his enlistment because he “enjoys interacting with children and it’s amazing to see them develop as days and weeks pass”.
Likewise, full-time undergraduate Vincent Koh, 24, is doing part-time work out of personal enjoyment as well.
He also earns “substantially” more in an hour as a part-time instructor for spinning lessons, compared with his earlier stints in F&B.
He declined to share how much more, only to say that he could earn the same amount he would have earned in a full shift at an F&B establishment just by teaching a few spin classes.
“Being able to earn some money while doing the thing I enjoy is a win-win for me,” he added.
Unlike part-time shift in restaurants or in retail, being a spin instructor allows him to choose his sessions based on his own availability.
“For example, during my submissions or exam season, I can take less classes; during my holiday period, I can take more.”
Some of the interviewees told CNA TODAY that there is an expectation for them to use the limited time they have outside of school to think about their future careers, so they would rather use these opportunities to earn relevant work experience.
Mr Seah, the part-time private gym instructor who wants to enter the sports science industry in future, said: “Working (at the private gym) allows me to build connections within the fitness community, which is helpful for my future career.”
For Mr Alex Chan, 24, he does not mind a part-time stint in F&B, since he sees that there are relevant work experience to be picked up in these jobs.
Mr Chan is pursuing a degree in business at RMIT University while working part-time at F&B and retail chain Bacha Coffee, a job he chose because he is “passionate about customer engagement”.
Being able to hone sales and communication skills through working at a premium retailer such as Bacha Coffee is valuable, he added.
On the other hand, some of them said they sought out part-time jobs that are wholly unrelated to their intended careers, and believe that these temporary jobs is a chance for them to dip their toes into new experiences.
Part-time nursing student Hannah Soon, 22, said: “I didn’t really want to work at a hospital because I was going to be doing my attachments there anyway, so I prefer to work part-time elsewhere.”
Unlike the others interviewed by CNA TODAY, she preferred retail work and has been taking up various part-time jobs in the retail industry since she was 16, after completing her N-Level examination. 
While the work hours can be long, Ms Soon said that such jobs are also easier to find and the tasks involved are relatively straightforward. She is satisfied with the remuneration offered.
Similarly, final-year university student Nur Fitri Elyana, 21, said that she is happy to work as a part-time promoter for various events because it gives her the chance to explore other jobs before she enters the workforce.
The role might not be directly linked to what the business undergraduate at SIM Global Education wants to do in future, but it will allow her to build essential people skills and other soft skills, she added.
The short-term nature of such gigs also fit into her two-month school breaks, whereas F&B or retail jobs would require at least a three-month commitment.
“Since this is my final year as a student before I start working full-time, I want to take this opportunity to explore as many fun event jobs as possible.” 
Mr Andrew Chan, who is vice-president of the Restaurant Association of Singapore, told CNA TODAY earlier this year that it is increasingly challenging to hire younger part-timers.
Speaking at the sidelines of Restaurant Asia 2024, a trade show for the F&B industry, he said: “It used to be where you still have a captive pool of workers who may not be so highly educated, who are okay with doing blue-collar jobs.”
He also noted that students nowadays take on a lot of extracurricular activities, which leave them with “very little opportunity” to work in part-time jobs.
In an attempt to attract part-timers, some F&B businesses told CNA earlier that they are offering benefits such as a four-day work week as an incentive. Sign-up bonuses are also a common feature for listings of part-time jobs in F&B.
Coffee chain Starbucks told CNA TODAY that more than a third of its part-timers are under the age of 21, with the majority balancing between work and school.
It said that it is able to attract a young pool of part-time workers due to its “comprehensive” benefits, which include health benefits and complimentary passes to attractions, as well as by working closely with these staff members to “create personalised work arrangements that complement their study commitments”.
Adjusting to these trends, Mr Aminurrashid from The Social Outcast said that he has changed his business model throughout the years from a casual dining restaurant to one that offers an intimate experiential dining because of a lack of part-time manpower.
He now runs his experiential restaurant with the help of just one other staff member, whereas in a casual dining setting, he estimated that he would have needed about 10 persons or more.
“If this is the rate the manpower issue is going, more F&B shops are going to drop like flies,” he reckoned.