Employment growth in Asia and the Pacific will be lower in 2025 than previously anticipated, largely due to geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
According to the Asia-Pacific edition of the World Employment and Social Outlook 2025 May Update, the ILO estimates that employment in the region is set to grow at a pace of 1.7 per cent (or 34 million). Prior to the recent trade uncertainty, employment in Asia and the Pacific was set to grow in 2025 by 1.9 per cent or 38 million.
However, Asia and the Pacific is still projected to experience the fastest job growth globally, outpacing Africa (1.6 per cent), the Americas (1.2 per cent), the Arab States (1.3 per cent), and Europe and Central Asia (0.6 per cent).
Recent uncertainty and the moderate downward revision to employment growth is in part a result of the region’s susceptibility to changing trading patterns. The report notes that nearly 3 per cent of total employment (or more than 55 million jobs) in the region is linked to the US through trade and supply chains, with manufacturing accounting for nearly half that figure.
“While the 1.7 per cent annual employment growth for the region remains the highest worldwide, it still represents a steep decline in the estimated number of jobs expected for the region in 2025. As workers and enterprises face heightened risks of disruption, efforts to improve worker and enterprise resilience by expanding and diversifying markets, improving social protection schemes and bolstering active labour market policies such as reskilling opportunities in in-demand occupations, among others, will be needed,” said Steven Tobin, Labour Economist at the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
