THE Philippines ranked 55th out of 63 countries in the 2018 World Talent Report (WTR) ranking. Now on its fifth edition, the Philippines’s rank in the WTR has been mostly stagnant in the past five years. It also placed 55th in 2014, 57th in 2015, back to 55th in 2016, climbed up to 45th in 2017, and back to 55th again this year.
Among Asean countries in the report, Singapore placed 13th, followed by Malaysia (22nd), Thailand (42nd) and Indonesia (45th). Overall, the highest ranked country was Switzerland, followed by Denmark, Norway, Austria and the Netherlands.
The WTR ranks countries based on their ability to attract, develop and retain a talented pool of human resources that businesses can employ. The 2018 edition ranked countries using 30 criteria grouped into three factors—Investment and Development, Appeal, and Readiness. Hard statistics hold two-thirds weight in determining the rankings, while perceptions-based criteria account for the remaining third. The Investment and Development factor measures the level of investment in and development of domestic, home-grown human resources. The Appeal factor measures the ability of a country to attract and retain high-quality human resources from abroad. The final factor, Readiness, looks at the quality and growth of the existing talent pool in the economy.
Among the three factors, Readiness has consistently been the highest-ranked, placing 37th this year. From 26th in 2014, it dropped to 27th in 2015, climbed back to 23rd in 2016, and even registered a high 11th place last year. The relatively higher rank of the Readiness factor was mostly driven by the sub-indicators on availability of skilled labor (7th), language skills (20th), and availability of competent senior managers (23rd). The next highest-ranked factor is Appeal at 38th.
Its ranking remained relatively constant over the last five years ranging from 34th to 38th.
The consistently worst-performing factor is Investment and Development, at 62nd out of 63 countries in 2018. In the five years of the WTR, its highest rank was 59th in 2014, and ranged from 61st to 63rd in the succeeding years. The indicators that contributed the most to this factor’s poor ranking were student-teacher ratio in primary and secondary education, public expenditure in education, and government expenditure on education per student.
The WTR is a publication of the IMD with AIM RSN PCC (formerly AIM Policy Center) as its Philippine partner.