THE Philippines has fallen to near bottom in a global ranking of how countries are nurturing and attracting skilled workers, placing 63rd out of 67 economies in the International Institute for Management Development's (IMD) 2024 list. The result — down three places from last year and also significantly lower than the 48th recorded just four years earlier — came as the country's scores slipped in the three areas measured by the Swiss-based business school's study: investment and development, appeal and readiness. The Philippines ranked 64th in investment and development (62nd last year), 54th in appeal (55th previously) and 52nd in readiness (from 51st). In 2020, it was 61st, 31st and 33rd, respectively. It was 13th out of 14 Asia-Pacific countries, only ahead of Mongolia. Singapore (2nd globally), Hong Kong (9th) and Australia (14th) were the top three countries in the region. Switzerland again topped the global list, followed by Singapore that climbed six spots from last year to displace Luxembourg, which fell to third. Rounding out the top five were Sweden and Denmark, up six and two places, respectively. Switzerland dominated both the investment and development, and appeal factors, while Singapore was first in terms of readiness, or the degree of existing skills and competencies in the talent pool. The only countries that ranked lower than the Philippines were Ghana, Venezuela, Brazil and Mongolia. Ghana, along with Nigeria (60th) and Puerto Rico (45th), were new entrants to the global ranking. The Philippines' top strengths, the IMD study found, were in the areas of cost of living and personal income tax (both part of the appeal factor), where it both ranked 20th overall, and in the readiness areas of skilled labor availability, science graduates and language skills (12th, 21st and 26th, respectively). Its biggest weaknesses were concentrated in investment in development, particularly in public spending on education per student (63rd) and pupil-teacher ratio at both the primary (60th) and secondary education (63rd) levels. It also ranked low with regard to quality of life (57th) and educational assessment (56th). The former is among the areas measured in terms of appeal while the latter is part of readiness. The AI challenge The 2024 World Talent Ranking noted that artificial intelligence (AI) was acting as an equalizer across nations with regard to talent competitiveness, with more jobs in developed economies being transformed or replaced by the technology. Policymakers need to begin streamlining regulation to minimize the impact from potential exclusion due to AI adoption, the report said, and recommended a focus on educational and labor market policies, particularly in terms of retraining and upskilling. "Instead of debating AI's ability to do certain tasks as well as humans, our focus should be on understanding and learning AI and Web3 technologies, which should take precedence in our education systems," said Arturo Bris, director of IMD's World Competitiveness Center (WCC), that produced the ranking. "While it is not yet clear whether AI will make countries more talent-competitive, the data does show that AI is going to impact inclusion and discrimination, because of the difference in access that employees have to it," he added. AI taking jobs away could exacerbate exclusion in some major economies, IMD said, noting that senior executives in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada found AI to be most visible in the workplace by way of it replacing people. While benefits from AI will likely be secured in the long term, the discrimination that is also rising in these economies could negatively affect their attractiveness to foreign talent, IMD added. "Discriminatory practices — whether based on race, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation — are not going to help attract and retain talent," WCC senior economist Jose Caballero said. The report also touched on how AI is viewed as enhancing tasks or promoting quiet quitting, its impact on the employment chances of men versus women and the need to quickly update education and training for AI-era skills.