Delivery services saved 110,000 F&B jobs: Study

A new study commissioned by Deliveroo suggests that the availability of delivery services may have protected up to 110,000 jobs in Singapore's beleaguered restaurant sector between April and June this year, when the city-state locked down activities and F&B businesses were barred from providing dine-in services—a measure that saw the F&B sector lose 22,900 jobs in that quarter, making it the worst-hit in the economy.

The study, carried out by Capital Economics, found that during that period, restaurants using Deliveroo derived up to S$2 billion (US$1.46 billion) of turnover from delivery services. This figure was then used to estimate the employment impact of having delivery services available.

According to the report: “Delivery services have helped to keep parts of the hospitality sector operating in a challenging environment and the cost to the government would have been even higher without them. They have helped to keep more people at work in the hospitality sector which has been one of the hardest hit sectors from lockdown restrictions and changes in peoples’ behavior.”

Sarah Tan, general manager of Deliveroo Singapore, said: “Deliveroo Singapore has been proud to bolster the local restaurant sector, one of the worst affected by the pandemic, while supporting thousands of jobs during this difficult period.”

The study also suggest that being able to fall back on an alternative business model, in this case delivery services, plays a significant role in businesses' ability to keep workers on. For example, the study found that 45 percent of employees in the restaurants surveyed continued working because of delivery services, while 60 percent continued working because of government schemes. Although the overlap between the two groups is unclear, the numbers indicate that the impact of the alternative should not be overlooked.