Educational Equity and Mobility

Inequality of opportunity is an important driver of income inequality in ASEAN. Large gaps in access to quality education within and across ASEAN have resulted in a skills shortage in skilled sectors. Free movement of labor may help to attenuate these gaps but greater investment is needed to prevent brain drain.

Inequality of opportunity in ASEAN is a major barrier to social mobility. Educational attainment of the wealthiest quintile of the income distribution greatly exceeds the poorest quintile by over 6 years in many countries including Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand. This talent gap leads to suboptimal availability of skilled labor and to low quality and precarious employment outcomes, limiting social mobility. In fact, 58% of ASEAN workers are engaged in vulnerable employment (own account, informal or contributing family worker). Boosting skills of vulnerable and low income groups will be critical to closing the skills gaps within and between ASEAN economies.

Despite a commitment to facilitate the movement of professionals and skilled labor, there is not yet a common market for movement of people. These hindrances limit the ability to tap into the full talent pool. There are notable intra-ASEAN migration imbalances. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore together welcomed 6 million intra-ASEAN migrants in 2013, accounting for over 90% of intra-ASEAN movement. Facilitating movement of people will be an important factor to ensure efficiency gains as well as inclusiveness in the economic growth process of all communities in the region.