Philippines drops to near bottom in IMD World Talent Ranking 2025

The Philippines fell to near bottom in an annual global ranking of countries’ ability to attract and retain a skilled workforce, amid a decline in the quality of life, the Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Center said.

In the IMD’s World Talent Ranking (WTR) 2025, the Philippines slipped a spot to 64^th out of 69 countries. Last year, it ranked 63^rd out of 67 economies.

This was the Philippines’ worst showing in 20 years or since 2005.

The Philippines’ talent competitiveness also continued to lag behind Asia-Pacific neighbors. It ranked 13^th out of 14 Asia-Pacific countries, better only than Mongolia (69^th overall).

Hong Kong (4^th) was the highest-ranking economy in the Asia-Pacific. It was followed by Singapore (7^th), Taiwan (17^th), Australia (19^th), Malaysia (25^th), New Zealand (33^rd), South Korea (37^th), China (38^th), Japan (40^th), Thailand (43^rd), Indonesia (53rd), and India (63^rd).

The global talent index was again dominated by European economies led by Switzerland (1^st overall), Luxembourg (2^nd), and Iceland (3^rd).

The WTR rankings are based on three factors: “appeal,” or the ability of the economy to attract foreign talent and retain local talent; “investment and development,” which refers to the measurement of resources allotted to develop a homegrown workforce; and “readiness,” or the quality of the skills in a country’s talent pool.

The Philippines saw a decline in all factors, dropping two places to 66^th in investment and development. It slipped two spots to 56^th in appeal and fell six places to 58^th in readiness.

“Generally speaking, the Philippines is a net exporter of talent. And it means that it will always find it difficult to retain the homegrown talent in the country,” Arturo Bris, director of the World Competitiveness Center and professor of finance at IMD, said at a hybrid press briefing.

“At the same time, interestingly, if you look at our indicators, the Philippines ranks 13^th in the availability of skilled labor in the country. So, it seems that executives and leaders in the country do not feel that they don’t find the talent that they would need,” he added.

LOW QUALITY OF LIFE

Mr. Bris noted the country has steadily declined in the rankings over the last few years and lagged in competitiveness mainly due to low quality of life in the Philippines versus its regional peers.

“I think the main driver is a declining quality of life. And again, remember that quality of life encompasses many different factors,” Mr. Bris said.

“The quality of life in the country, especially compared to other neighbors, like Thailand, Singapore, or Indonesia, is lower,” he added.

In particular, he said that the quality of life in the Philippines ranked 60^th out of 69 economies. It ranked 49^th in exposure to pollution, and 31^st in management remuneration.

Philippine Institute for Development Studies Senior Research Fellow John Paolo R. Rivera said that the country’s low ranking in the talent index “reflects chronic underinvestment in education, weak training systems, and poor talent retention.”

“Compared with Asia-Pacific peers like Malaysia or Singapore, we lag behind in both talent readiness and quality of life. To catch up, we must improve public spending on education, build industry-relevant skills, and make our economy more attractive to high-value talent,” he said in a Viber message.

Misiek Piskorski, dean of executive education and professor of digital strategy, analytics, and innovation at IMD, said that much of the Philippines’ success is mainly due to its cheap labor.

While many multinational companies set up back-office operations in the Philippines, this is now under threat due to increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the business process outsourcing sector.

“One of the big worries that I have for Manila… is to what extent, again, AI will substitute many of these jobs,” Mr. Piskorski said.

“Will the Philippines be ready with enough workforce and enough skilled workforce to provide the next generation of services? That is my big concern,” he added.

To address these concerns, he said that there is a need for more focused investments.

“To me, the Philippines is always Manila, and the rest of the country is very, very different. And so, we also have to start thinking about what we do in Manila and what we do across other islands that might be far away from Manila and upskill people there to get things going,” he said.

Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) President Alfredo S. Panlilio said the quality of the workforce can be addressed by improving curricula across schools.

“I think an important aspect is how do you fix the curricula of the schools, from public to private, to make it relevant to the demands of the current workforce,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 23^rd MAP International CEO Conference on Tuesday.

“Because although there are a lot of available positions, the companies cannot hire or don’t hire because they can’t find the talent that they’re looking for. So, it’s really about human capital,” he added.

During his stint with the Private Sector Advisory Council, Mr. Panlilio said he recommended focusing more on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs.

“Because AI is technology, we have to have the skill sets for our youth to develop those kinds of skills,” he said, adding that it is still uncertain what jobs will be created in the future,” he said.

He said the MAP taps academics to join committees within the organization, especially when doing research and in understanding data.

“So, we’re trying to bridge that, making sure that there’s a link or alignment between the educational system and what the corporates, and even the public sector, need down the road,” he added.

Source: Business World

29 Philippine companies rank among TIME’s best in Asia-Pacific for 2025

American news magazine TIME has named 29 Philippine companies among the World’s Best Companies of 2025 in the Asia-Pacific region.

The list ranks 500 firms based on a quantitative study assessing their influence on the region’s role in global business. Companies were evaluated across three dimensions: employee satisfaction, financial performance and sustainability transparency.

Employee satisfaction was measured using a 2023 survey of over 50,000 employees across the Asia-Pacific region. 

Financial performance was assessed through Statista's financial database and targeted research, covering firms with at least $100 million (~P5.8 billion) in annual revenue in 2023 and positive revenue growth from 2021 to 2023.

Sustainability transparency was based on Statista’s 2022 environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. 

Factors included carbon emissions and reduction rates, Carbon Disclosure Project ratings, gender diversity in boardrooms, human rights policies, adherence to Global Reporting Initiative guidelines in corporate social responsibility reports and compliance with anti-corruption standards.

Each firm was assessed based on these factors and assigned a score out of 100. The top 500 companies were recognized as TIME’s World’s Best Companies of 2025 in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is TIME’s first annual list in collaboration with global data and business intelligence platform Statista.

Here are the 29 Philippine companies that made the ranking, along with their respective positions out of 500.

DBS Bank of Singapore emerged as the region’s top-performing company, followed by Malaysia’s Maybank and South Korea’s Kia, each scoring around 96 overall. 

This does not imply, however, that they ranked highest in every criterion.

In the Philippines, Ayala Corp. stood out as the top-performing firm and was the only one to achieve an overall score above 90. It was followed by San Miguel Corp. and Security Bank Corp.

According to BusinessWorld’s report on the country's top 1,000 corporations in 2023, the highest-grossing firms were in the manufacturing sector, led by oil company Petron — one of the 29 Philippine firms included in TIME’s list.

Source: Philstar

PH digital competitiveness drops

The Philippines' digital competitiveness has fallen for a second straight year based on an annual ranking released on Thursday by Switzerland's Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The country was 61st out of 67 economies in the 2024 list, produced by the IMD's World Competitiveness Center (WCC). This was down from 59th last year when it lost three spots from 56th in 2022.

It was next to last among 14 Asia-Pacific countries, unchanged since 2020, and 25th among 30 economies with populations of more than 20 million, also the same as last year.

Singapore continued to lead the list while the United States experienced a three-place drop to fourth. Switzerland and Denmark took second and third, respectively.

Singapore's top ranking was said to reflect its advanced city management, prolific high-tech patent grants, and robust banking and financial sectors.

Switzerland, meanwhile, improved in terms of high-tech exports and cybersecurity, and Denmark was strong in the areas of employee training, e-governance and secure internet servers.

In contrast, the US saw declines in its attitude to globalization, international managerial experience and increasing fears of failure among entrepreneurs.

The IMD ranking measures digital competitiveness using three main factors — knowledge, technology and future readiness — and the Philippines lost places with regard to the first two.

It was 64th in terms of knowledge, 56th in terms of technology — down from last year's 59th and 63rd, respectively. It edged up, however, to 58th from 59th in the area of future readiness.

Broken down further, the Philippines' rankings also slipped with regard to sub-factors under the three main categories.

It fell to 60th from 56th in terms of talent, 61st from 58th in scientific concentration, and remained 62nd in training and education — all under the knowledge pillar.

Sub-factor rankings under technology all fell: 66th from 63rd for regulatory framework, 45th from 41st for capital and 53rd from 43rd in the area of technological framework.

Improvements, however, came in the future readiness sub-factors of adaptive attitudes (52nd from 59th) and IT integration, 58th from 60th, although a drip to 54th from 50th was seen in the area of business agility.

There were some bright spots for the country: it was second overall in terms of female researchers (under scientific concentration) and high-tech exports (technological framework).

It was 22nd with regard to science graduates (training and education), 9th in telecommunication invest ments (capital), and 19th in flexibility and adaptability (adaptive attitudes).

The biggest weaknesses, meanwhile, were in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) articles (66th, scientific concentration), secure internet servers and communications technology (64th and 66th, respectively, under technological framework), and starting a business and enforcing contracts (65th and 64th, regulatory framework).

The country's main challenges, according to IMD partner the Rizalino Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness of the Asian Institute of Management, are:

– sustaining job-generating investments;

– ensuring food security to temper inflation and keep prices affordable;

– addressing learning gaps to improve the education system;

– building sustainable infrastructure to reduce climate change vulnerability; and

– resolving the Philippines' territorial rights to the West Philippine Sea diplomatically and peacefully.

Jose Caballero, senior economist at the WCC, said that geopolitical rivalries — particularly between the US and China — were fragmenting the global digital landscape.

Geopolitical tensions have also become a defining feature in shaping digital competitiveness, the IMD said.

Economies, the business school said, will have to grapple with the pace of technological change and capability requirements.

Countries that effectively exploit the power of new technologies such as AI, blockchain and quantum computing, it added, "are likely to enhance their digital competitive advantage, leading to sustained economic growth, improved productivity and greater global influence.

Source: Manila Times