Philippines drops in IMD’s World Talent Ranking

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ performance in developing, attracting and retaining its workforce has declined, based on this year’s World Talent Ranking report released by business school Institute for Management Development.

From 63rd spot in 2024, the Philippines’ ranking dropped to 64th place out of 69 economies.

Economies’ talent competitiveness is ranked based on three factors: the state of investment and development in home-grown talent, how much a country appeals to local and overseas talent and readiness or skills and competencies that exist in the talent pool.

The Philippines’ ranking dropped across all factors, the report showed.

In the investment and development factor, the Philippines slid to 66th place from last year’s 64th spot.

In terms of appeal, the Philippines also saw its ranking go down to 56th from 54th.

The country also slid in terms of readiness, from 52 to 58.

Within Southeast Asia, the Philippines’ overall ranking placed the country behind Singapore (seventh), Malaysia (25th), Thailand (43rd) and Indonesia (53rd).

Switzerland continued to rank first, followed by Luxembourg and Iceland.

On the sidelines of yesterday’s International CEO Conference held by the Management Association of the Philippines, MAP president Alfredo Panlilio said human capital is an important issue for the private sector.

“An important aspect is how you fix the curricula of the schools, from public to private, even private schools like Ateneo, to make it relevant to the demands of the current workforce,” he said.

While there are many available positions, Panlilio said companies cannot hire due to the lack of talent that fits job requirements.

As new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), continue to evolve, he said there should be a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

“AI technology has evolved so much that our skill level has to adapt,” he stressed.

Panlilio said MAP is working with universities to address this challenge.