Assessment of Productivity Performance of Food and Accommodation Services Sector

Assoc Prof Randolph Tan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry supplements its assessment of the productivity performance of the food and accommodation services sector by using alternative measures, such as the change in the number of customers served by an establishment per worker.

The National Productivity Council (NPC) tracks Value-Added (VA) per worker at the macro-level. This is the most consistent and internationally recognised measure of productivity improvements. The NPC also supplements this measure with sector-specific indicators which better reflect the nature of each sector’s business cycles and help to enrich our understanding of the progress of our productivity initiatives.

In the Hotels and Food Services sectors, there have been steady improvements in the sector-specific indicators between 2009 and 2013. For example, revenue per worker in the Hotels sector grew 9% per annum, and revenue per worker and revenue per square foot in the Food Services sector grew 4.3% and 6.7% per annum respectively.

This suggests that mindsets towards productivity have changed and companies are taking steps to raise space productivity. In this regard, the Government will continue to assist companies, including those in the Hotels and Food Services, to innovate and boost their topline.

The NPC will continue to track VA per worker and sector-specific outcome indicators closely to monitor the progress of our productivity drive at the macro- and sector-levels. We will also continue to expand the range of sectors for which such indicators are tracked where feasible and consider publishing them at appropriate platforms in future.