PH slips 1 notch in human capital index

THE Philippines has slipped in an annual ranking of how countries are developing their human capital but overall its performance remains above the global average.

The World Economic Forum’s ( WEF) 2017 Human Capital Report placed the Philippines 50th out of 130 countries, down a notch from 49th last year.

“The Philippines ranks 50th … having developed 64 percent of its human capital. A strong positive is its capacity for human capital (rank 19 overall),” the WEF said.

The actual percentage of 64.36 percent, however, is lower compared to the 71.8 percent recorded in 2016.

The Philippines was said to have been less successful in building capacity among younger generations, with some attention needed in this respect.

The report measures four key areas of human capital development:

• capacity, largely determined by past investment in formal education;

• deployment or the application and accumulation of skills through work;

• development or the formal education of the next generation workforce and continued upskilling and reskilling of existing workers; and

• know-how or the breadth and depth of specialized skills-use at work.

Performance is also measured across five age groups or generations: 0-14 years, 15-24 years, 25-54 years, 55-64 years, and 65 years and over.

The Philippines’ largest failing comes in the deployment pillar where it placed 87th, particularly due to weak labor force participation and employment gender gap rankings of 101st and 102nd, respectively, in the key 25 to 54 age group.

Globally, 62 percent of human capital has now been developed, the WEF said. Only 25 nations have tapped 70 percent of their people’s human capital or more.

The majority of countries were said to be leveraging between 50 percent and 70 percent of their human capital, with 14 countries remaining below 50 percent.

The top 10 countries were Norway, Finland, Switzerland, United States, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Slovenia, and Austria, while the bottom 10 comprised Guinea, Chad, Swaziland, Lesotho, Pakistan, Mali, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mauritania and Yemen.