The majority, or 72%, of workers in Asia are willing to retrain for new jobs in any case as they look towards the aftermath of the pandemic. Furthermore, another 25% said that they are willing to retrain should the need arise. This is according to new study from Seek Asia, Boston Consulting Group and The Network.  

Of the 72% of respondents who are willing to retrain in any case, most of them work in the manual work & manufacturing (75.87%); digitalisation & automation (75.72%); and customer service (75.68%) industries.

Those aged between 21 and 50 are the most keen to retrain, and IT & technology (26.58%), digitalisation & automation (25.10%) and administration & secretarial (19.25%) roles appeal most to them.

The study also found that automation is perceived as a threat to job security for many workers. Nearly half, or 49% of workers in Asia have become more concerned about automation during the pandemic. Worldwide, four of the top five countries where workers are concerned about being replaced by technology are Asian countries. This includes Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.  

Workers in financial institutions (54.89%) as well as insurance (54.50%), telecommunications (53.96%), technology (53.58%) public (50.47%) and industrial goods (50.12%) sectors are most concerned about the threat of automation. Those holding job roles such as law; sales; engineering & technical; and health and medicine are generally less concerned.

According to the study, in the past year, workers have been taking steps to upgrade their skills. Over a third of workers in Asia, or 34.24%, said that they have spent significant time (few months per year or more) learning while 29.37% said they have spent a few weeks a year doing so. On-the-job training (73.92%), self-study (56.98%) and online educational institutions (46.29%) are the top three most popular resources they used to train and develop new skills.