World Bank says Thailand has skilled workers but job opportunities lag
The World Bank Group says the region's working-age population will rise by 320 million over the next decade, while only about 110 million jobs are expected.
- The World Bank states that Thailand has a skilled workforce with a good level of labour "capability."
- Despite having skilled workers, the country's main problem is an insufficient number of economic and job opportunities.
- This gap is widening as AI and automation replace routine jobs, creating a challenge to balance worker skills with the creation of new, higher-skilled positions.
The employment landscape has changed visibly since the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), Habib Nasser Rab, Practice Manager, Prosperity, at the World Bank Group, said on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) in a session titled “A sharp, data-driven framing of the 210 million job gap”.
He said the East Asia and Pacific region was facing a critical turning point in its labour market, with the working-age population (aged 15-65) expected to rise by as many as 320 million over the next 10 years.
However, only about 110 million jobs are expected to be available, reflecting a future jobs-shortage crisis.
The situation has been compounded by the economic slowdown after the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by higher debt burdens and lower investment, slowing the expansion of “good jobs”.
Rab also said most workers moving out of agriculture tended to enter low-skilled service jobs in urban areas, which offered low pay and low added value.
AI technologies and automation have also significantly changed the nature of work, especially by “replacing” human labour in routine jobs.
The main categories of work affected include routine manual jobs, such as production-line or factory workers, who are being replaced by robots, and routine cognitive jobs, such as bank employees being replaced by ATMs.
Even financial analysts and economists are beginning to see AI take over some of their functions.
Data indicated that millions of workers in the region had already lost their jobs because of automation, especially in manufacturing-intensive countries such as Vietnam.
However, amid layoffs in traditional forms of work, one group has benefited from the transition: those developing their skills and capabilities to keep pace with technology, as AI will help create new jobs and activities requiring higher skills.
For Thailand, the World Bank said the country had an advantage in labour “capability”, which was at a good level, but its main problem was insufficient economic “opportunity”.
Rab concluded that the region’s challenge was to balance strengthening workers’ skills with creating new opportunities, so those who lost their old jobs could move equitably into new positions created by technology.
