Rapid digitalisation putting jobs at risk in the Philippines

While new job opportunities are expected to be created amidst the rise of rapid global digitalisation, at least 50,000 jobs in the Philippines could disappear in the next three to four years, particularly in the retail and traditional data entry sectors.

Marco de la Rosa, Kearny Philippines Country Head, said, “We have done a study on this and there’s a percentage of jobs that will probably become obsolete in the next three to four years. So, when we were calculating it, it came out to about 50,000 to 100,000 jobs that are being netted off.”

This, said Kearny Philippines, reiterates the fact that the demand for talent in the future would be centred around technology and digital literacy. de la Rosa added, “We are already seeing the impact of that in financial institutions, telco and the likes. So, the important thing here is how to get to that next level of skills so that you know the value add is incrementally harder.”

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To bridge this gap, Kearney Philippines urged the Philippines to improve on its digital infrastructure to adapt to rapid digitalisation, and to improve the collaboration between the government and academics to recalibrate the educational foundation to meet the needs of the global demand. Organisations, meanwhile, need to regroup and strategise how to attract new talent.  

The consultancy also called upon the government to incentivise and create attractive working environments, leverage private-public partnerships to develop future employees, and leverage key success factors from other leading countries on upskilling its workforce, reported The Philippine Star.