These charts illustrate how demand for digital and AI skills has surged in the region, and how rising digital proficiency is reshaping jobs and widening wage gaps.
Digital tools are now part of daily life across Asia and the Pacific, and labor markets are following the trend.
Employers increasingly expect workers to be comfortable with technology, whether they are teachers, shop assistants, or software engineers.
Yet until recently, policymakers had limited evidence on how deeply digital technologies had penetrated labor markets, and which skills employers rewarded most.
Our research attempted to address this gap by using more than 6 million job postings on the Indeed employment website. These listing were spread across Australia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea, from 2019–2024. A large language model classified each job’s required level of digital and AI skills.
On average across the six countries, about 45% of postings require at least basic digital literacy, such as using email, preparing simple presentations, or entering data in spreadsheets.
Almost 30% require intermediate skills, ranging from managing online content to performing basic coding. More than 10% of the postings require advanced digital skills, including programming, cloud services, or working with AI and big data.
We found that digital upskilling has been concentrated in entry-level and median occupations. Jobs that in 2019 required no digital skills now much more often require basic skills. Jobs that already needed some basic digital proficiency have now shifted towards intermediate skills.
Since the public release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022, the share of job postings requiring the use of AI tools—such as integrating large language models (LLMs) or applying AI for analysis and content generation—more than doubled in two years.
This was found among jobs requiring intermediate digital skills, reaching nearly 2% at the end of 2024 on average across countries. Among advanced digital skills jobs, the same share reached almost 11% by the end of 2024. These trends show that AI capabilities are rapidly spreading beyond the technology sector, as employers increasingly expect workers to interact with or leverage AI in their daily tasks.
We also found a steep digital wage difference. Jobs requiring basic digital skills pay around 6% more than similar jobs with no digital skills. Moving from basic to intermediate skills raises wages by almost 9%. Stepping up from intermediate to advanced digital jobs adds another 14% on average.
These differences are not driven by workers switching jobs or employers: digital wage premiums arise within the same job title and firm.
AI skills pay even higher wage premiums. Jobs that explicitly ask workers to use AI tools, such as integrating large language models into workflows, earn about 5% more.These findings have clear policy implications: ensuring that education and training systems keep pace with the rising demand for digital skills. Policymakers in the region should focus on the following:
Build digital foundations early. Digital literacy should be treated as a core competency on par with reading and numeracy. Incorporating coding, data handling, and responsible online behavior into basic education, as done in Japan and Singapore, can ensure that all students acquire essential skills before entering the labor market.
Target digital upgrading in mid-skill occupations. Vocational and mid-career training programs should therefore focus on practical digital tools—CRM systems, data analysis, and online content management—so that workers in administrative, sales, and service roles can adapt to evolving job requirements.
Institutionalize real-time skill monitoring. Online job postings cannot replace labor force and enterprise surveys, but offer timely insights on emerging skill needs. Governments could formalize partnerships with job platforms and researchers to monitor emerging skill trends, identify wage premia, and adapt education and training programs in near real time.
Our research makes one message clear: countries that invest early and consistently in digital capabilities will be better prepared for the jobs emerging today and in the future.
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