shifting gears
Figure 3.31 All economies except Pakistan see an upgrading of skills in the last decade or so. India and Bangladesh see the largest improvements. Share of high-skilled workers in labor force also increases Changes in skills between survey years, full labor force and high-skilled workers Percent 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 -2 BGD 06-16 IND 09-18 SRI 06-19 US 11-19 -4 Solid color: growth in skills index
Percentage points 20 15 10 5 0 PAK 09-18
-5
Pattern code: growth in skills index excluding manager occupations
Change in share of high-skilled occupations (RHS) Note: Index not comparable across countries due to different starting points. Skills classification based on job description mapping by International Labour Organization (see Appendix 3.4 on skills upgrading for more details). Source: Labor force surveys, various years for South Asian countries; U.S. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS).
Moreover, there is evidence from India and other countries that export orientation is associated with job creation. For instance, the number of jobs (and wages) supported by the export of business services in 2015 exceeded that of manufactured goods in large emerging economies, such as Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation, and South Africa. Furthermore, the growth of business services has raised incentives for workers in developing countries to obtain more education. For example, evidence from India shows that the expansion of business, telecommunications, and financial services has been associated with higher educational attainment (Jensen 2012; Nano et al. 2021; Oster and Steinberg 2013). Though we cannot make conclusions about the appropriate pace of improvement of skills and education of the labor force going forward in each economy based on the trends in the past decade, workers should be provided with greater opportunities to use digital technologies in a way that improves their skills and make them more productive through learning by doing on the job.
3.5 Policy challenges The rapid transformation of the services sectors described in this chapter requires new policies, rethinking of regulations, and perhaps even new institutions. The telecom sector provides an example of necessary institutional changes during recent decades. When new technologies opened the opportunity for competition 150
