AWS Asia Pacific
Digital Skills StudyT H E E C O N O M I C B E N E F I T S O F A T E C H - S AV V Y W O R K F O R C E

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Executive Summary
Digital transformation is happening at a rapid pace across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region — from the way wework to the way we live. We are seeing information technology drive significant transformation at the individual,organizational, and macroeconomic levels.
To study these dynamics in a global context Gallup collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to conduct oneof the largest international surveys on digital skills to date.1 Gallup surveyed more than 30,000 workers with accessto the internet in 19 countries — comprising 67% of the total value that jobs requiring advanced digital skills add
to the global economy — and surveyed more than 9,000 employers.
Among the 19 countries included are Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South
Korea, and Thailand. The data show nearly three-quarters of workers in these countries do not use a computer intheir jobs, suggesting there is a significant imperative — and opportunity — to bridge the skills gap between theregion’s workforce and its business needs.
The results consistently show that workers who obtain digital skills provide immense economic value to businesses
and workers worldwide and APAC, increasing gross domestic product (GDP), revenue, innovation, wages, job
security, and job satisfaction for businesses that integrate these technologies and the workers who acquire theneeded skill sets. While both workers and organizations cite strong interest in digital skills training, companies
around the region are struggling to fill vacant jobs that require these skills.
Gallup’s analysis also found a number of practical obstacles to hiring digital workers, including a notable disconnect
between how much employers say they value nontraditional education certifications, such as industry certifications,and their actions when evaluating candidates’ resumes. Specifically, the study found a self-imposed skills gap inentry-level technology job requirements, where employers are slightly more likely to prefer or require a bachelor’s
degree than they are to prefer or require digital skills certifications, despite the fact that managers give greaterhiring preference to candidates with digital certifications than they do to candidates with a non-computer-sciencebachelor’s degree.

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The largest comparable survey Gallup found is the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, an international
collaboration between government agencies led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That survey,
among other things, tests problem-solving in a technologically rich environment and collects data on the use of computers and computer
skills at work. The sample size is approximately 5,000 per country across 40 countries, administered in various years.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Top Five Takeaways
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Advanced digital workers earn 65% more than non-digital workers, adding nearly $1 trillion to
Asia Pacific’s annual GDP.
Workers who use digital skills at work add significant value to their national and regional economies, while also earning
greater individual incomes for themselves. The 8% of APAC workers who use advanced digital skills on the job — suchas software developers and cloud architects — add an estimated $934 billion to the region’s GDP on their own. Whentheir economic contributions are combined with those of APAC workers who use more basic or intermediate digitalskills at work — such as email, word processing or drag-and-drop website design — the net economic benefit of digitalskills in the region totals almost $4.7 trillion per year.
These macroeconomic benefits are a direct result of the higher incomes digital workers earn. While most workers in
the Asia Pacific region do not use any digital skills at work, those who do secure noticeable salary advantages. The
average APAC worker who uses advanced digital skills in their job earns 65% more than a worker that has similar levelsof education and experience, but does not use digital skills. Even utilizing basic digital skills at work — such as email orword processing software — earns workers an additional 39% over their non-digital peers.
In addition to the ways this kind of income boost can transform the lives of individual digital workers, those gains also
scale to significant value for national and regional economies.

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Workers who use advanced digital skills feel more satisfied and secure in their jobs.
APAC workers who acquire advanced digital skills realize benefits beyond higher salaries. More than three-quarters(79%) of workers who use advanced digital skills express high job satisfaction, compared to less than half (46%) of
workers who only use basic digital skills.
Additionally, workers with advanced digital skills express higher confidence in their job security than those with basic
digital skills (77% to 45%).

3

Employers that rely heavily on advanced digital skills, digital technology, and cloud technology
report higher levels of revenue, growth, and innovation.
APAC organizations that employ workers with advanced digital skills report annual revenues that are 150% higher thanthose that employ workers with only basic digital skills. About three-quarters (76%) of highly digital organizations haveintroduced an innovative product or service within the past two years, a rate more than 30 percentage points higher
than basic digital organizations (45%).
Findings further show two-thirds (66%) of organizations that employ advanced digital workers have steady annual
revenue growth (meaning at least 10%) over the past year, making them 23 points more likely to experience steady
growth than basic digital organizations (43%).
These benefits may also be partially rooted in organizations’ adoption of cloud technology. Eight in 10 APAC employersthat run most of their business on the cloud report innovating in the past two years, and 69% report annual revenue
growth of 10% or more. Organizations that do not leverage the cloud are half as likely to report innovating (36%), and28 percentage points less likely to experience steady revenue growth (41%).

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

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Seven in 10 employers in Asia Pacific countries face digital hiring challenges, in part due to strictbachelor’s degree requirements.
Over three-quarters (76%) of APAC employers have job openings that require digital skills, and most of theseorganizations (72%) report difficulties in filling these positions. Twenty-five percent of employers say it is “a significant
challenge” to hire workers with the digital skills they need.
One reason is the stringent employer requirements that digital workers havea bachelor’s degree. Only 27% of digital workers in the region say they havea bachelor’s degree, yet 38% of APAC employers say a degree is required
for IT staff — even for entry-level tech positions. Organizations that enforce
degree requirements are nearly twice as likely to say hiring digital workers is asignificant challenge (32%), compared with organizations that only prefer —but do not require — a bachelor’s degree (17%).
In response to these hiring challenges, many APAC organizations are adjusting
their hiring requirements: 76% of employers in the region say that digital
certifications or training courses are acceptable substitutes for a bachelor’s
degree. This is an important development, as digital workers in the Asia Pacificregion are about twice as likely to hold a digital certification (50%) as they areto hold a bachelor’s degree (27%). Therefore, companies that acknowledge
industry-certified applicants may be just as qualified as those with universityof employers in the region
say that digital certifications
or training courses are
acceptable substitutes for abachelor’s degree.

degrees nearly double the pool of digital workers who are eligible to apply for
their roles.

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Two-thirds of organizations in the region say they are likely to adopt at least one
emerging technology.
While most organizations already find hiring for today’s digital skills to be a challenge, they also must begin preparing
for the hiring challenges of the future. When asked how likely it is that each of 10 emerging technologies — including
5G, the metaverse, blockchain, and artificial intelligence — will become a standard part of their business in the
future, 67% of APAC employers say it is highly likely that at least one emerging technology will become part of theiroperations. More than half of employers (56%) believe multiple technologies will become standard, and 17% say all 10
will be a part of their organization’s business in the future.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Detailed Findings
The pace of digital transformation happening across the Asia
Pacific region is exciting to witness. However, rapid technologicalchanges are contributing to a widening digital skills gap thatmust be addressed to unlock the region’s full economic potential,
especially in the face of challenging economic times.
According to the International Data Corporation, the public
cloud services market in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan)
will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4%,
from $51.2 billion in 2021 to $165.2 billion in 2026.2 As moreorganizations move their technology to the cloud, the adoptionof cloud computing, machine learning, data analytics, andcybersecurity across every industry will fuel a vast number of newjobs. The opportunity to become a leader in the digital economy
depends on having a robust workforce of skilled professionals to
support current and future innovation.
However, governments and industries across APAC are grapplingwith a shortage of digitally skilled talent, and they are struggling
to keep up as a result. Now is the time to upskill and reskill workers
with a sense of urgency. Training for the most in-demand cloudskills must become commonplace so people can grow their careers,organizations can expand, and countries can thrive.

To assess the effects andbenefits of digitization on
the workers, employers,
and overall economy of the
Asia Pacific (APAC) region,
Gallup surveyed more than

16,000working adults and

7,500
employers across9
countries.
from August 2-24, 2022.3

Workers and employers were asked about whether their job or business involved the use of a computeror tablet. Those who reported their job or business relied on computers or tablets to some degree
were segmented into three categories based on the highest level of digital skills used:- basic digital skills: e.g., email, word processors and other office productivity software, social media- intermediate digital skills: e.g., drag‑and‑drop website design, troubleshooting applications, data analysis- advanced digital skills: e.g., cloud architecture or maintenance, software or application development,
artificial intelligence, and machine learning

2
3

Source: IDC Press Release, Asia/Pacific* Public Cloud Services to Reach US$165.2 Billion in 2026, according to IDC Forecast, September
2022, #prAP49725422
The nine countries surveyed include Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.
Throughout this report, “Asia Pacific” refers to all respondents across these nine countries.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Using respondents’ self-reported skill assessments, as well as supplemental Gallup World Poll data, Gallup
estimates that nearly three-quarters (72%) of workers in the Asia Pacific region do not use a computerat work. The proportion of non-digital workers varies across the region, from as few as one-quarter of workers
in Australia (24%), Singapore (26%), and New Zealand (27%), to as many as 83% of workers in India.
Of the 28% of APAC workers who use some level of digital skills at work, half use basic digital skills. Six percent ofworkers employ intermediate digital skills, and the remaining 8% use advanced digital skills.
CHART 1

Level of Digital Skill Use Among APAC Workers% None% Basic digital skills% Intermediate digital skills% Advanced digital skills

Note: Due to rounding, segments may sum to 100%, +/-1; numerals shown when ≥5%.

In addition to reporting the level of digital skills they currently use at work, workers also provided feedback about
how satisfied and secure they feel in their current job, whether they are interested in pursuing additional digitaltraining, what incentives or barriers they face to doing so, and how they anticipate digital skills will factor into their
future employment. Similarly, employers were asked about the benefits they derived from their workers’ digitalskill sets, barriers to hiring and training digital workers, and their organization’s projected reliance on current andemerging technologies.
The data show, across APAC, workers and employers who leverage digital skills in their workplaces report stronger
outcomes in a number of key business and employment metrics. Advanced digital workers’ salaries are 65%
higher than workers who do not use computers at work; meanwhile, organizations that employ these advanced
digital workers report more than double the annual revenue of basic digital organizations ($1.1 million to about$441,000), in addition to growing and innovating at faster rates.
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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Middle-income economies4 — where the discrepancies between jobs that require limited digital skills at all andthose that require advanced digital skills are likely more pronounced than in high-income economies — often
report the most significant benefits as a result of obtaining advanced digital skills or hiring workers who have them.
For example, the largest gap in job satisfaction between basic and advanced digital workers is in the middle-income
economy of Indonesia, where advanced digital workers are twice as likely to be highly satisfied with their job asbasic digital workers. Meanwhile, basic digital workers in the high-income economies of Australia and Japan are
nearly as satisfied with their jobs as advanced digital workers in those countries — though advanced digital workers
do hold a slim advantage in both instances.
Still, while workers in middle-income economies report greater benefits from digital skills than those inhigh-income countries, workers and organizations throughout the region report at least some degree of
improvement. As a result, countries with a greater focus on increasing the level of digitization in theireconomies would likely drive widespread improvements in citizens’ salaries and job satisfaction, as well as thefinancial health of its businesses.

Digital Workers Create Trillions in Economic Benefits for APAC Economies
In addition to improving the lives of its citizens through higher incomes and fulfillment in their work, there isanother major incentive for APAC nations to improve the digital skills of their workforces: Increased earnings forindividual workers have a tremendous impact on local economies and national gross domestic product (GDP).
To determine the magnitude of these effects on national GDP, Gallup first calculated the additional income basic,
intermediate and advanced digital workers earn over workers who do not use any digital skills in the same country.
Then, Gallup scaled those individual gains across the total number of workers in each country that use each level ofdigital skills, plus the estimated revenue they generate for their employers.
For example, using self-reported digital-skills-use data from the AWS Global Digital Skills study and supplemental
employment data from Gallup’s World Poll, Gallup estimates there are 1,922,649 workers in Malaysia who use
advanced digital skills at work. Those workers report annual incomes that are $21,773 higher, on average, than
the incomes of non-digital Malaysian workers. As a result,
Malaysian workers who acquire and use advanced digital skillsin their jobs earn — and thus contribute to Malaysian GDP —1,922,649
roughly $41.9 billion more each year than workers with noworkers in Malaysia use advanced
digital skills. As Malaysian workers’ incomes account for 40%
skills at work.
of overall GDP, it is estimated these workers generate a total
These workers earnof $105.7 billion when considering not only the $41.9 billion
in wages they earn for themselves, but also the $63.8 billion$21,773in capital they generate for the organizations they work for.
more in income on average using
Across all APAC countries surveyed, digital workers add an
estimated $4.7 trillion to the GDP of the region. Due totheir higher prevalence in the workforce, more than halfof those gains are from individuals who only use basic
digital skills, such as email, word processing, and social
media at work.

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advanced skills.

$41.9 billion

more in earnings and GDP contributions
from workers who use advanced digital skills.

In this report, middle-income economies (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) and high-income economies (Australia, Japan, New Zealand,
Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) are defined by World Bank income classifications.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

CHART 2

Digital Workers’ Additional Contributions to APAC GDP in 2022 USD
By level of digital skills used
Basic digital skills

Intermediate digital skills

Advanced digital skills

While advanced digital workers do contribute the most to GDP on a per-capita basis, there are certainly economic
benefits to increasing the digital base of a country’s workforce at any level, including training non-digital workers touse basic digital technology.
In part because the advantages of digital workers’ income varies across APAC countries (compounded by differencesin countries’ employment rates and prevalence of digital skills), so too does the distribution of GDP gains. Morethan half (57%) of the additional GDP generated by digital APAC workers is concentrated in Japan and South Korea.
CHART 3

Digital Workers’ Additional Contributions to APAC GDP, by Country
In billions of 2022 USD

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

APAC Workers With Digital Skills Earn Up to 65% More Than Non-Digital Workers
One of the most common reasons APAC workers express interest in broadening their digital skill set is the prospectof a higher salary. Nearly half (46%) of digital workers who want additional digital skills training say an increasedsalary is what motivates them.
Those motivations are well-founded; across the region, workers who leverage advanced digital skills do enjoy higher
salaries. On average, digitally skilled APAC workers earn salaries that are 58% higher than those of their non-digitalpeers. This salary premium is as high as 65% for workers who use advanced digital skills, though workers who only
use basic digital platforms, such as email and productivity software, still earn 39% more than workers who do not
use any digital skills.
CHART 4

Income Premium for Individual Workers Over Non-Digital Workers% Premium, by level of digital skills

These salary increases control for workers’ education and years of experience; that is to say, if two workers haveidentical educational backgrounds and the same number of years of work experience, but one uses advanced digitalskills at their job while the other does not, the advanced digital worker would expect to earn 65% more than the
non-digital worker.
While digital workers throughout the region earn more, on average, than non-digital workers, the income premium
varies widely by country. Workers in Singapore and Indonesia who use any level of digital skills earn nearly double
the salaries of workers who use no digital skills at work in those countries (97% and 93% higher, respectively).
By comparison, the income gap between digital and non-digital workers is noticeably lower in Australia (5%) and
New Zealand (16%). This may be partially a result of the industries that these countries’ non-digital workers are
employed in. May 2022 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that workers in the country’s mining
industry earn roughly AUD $2,700 per week. That is the highest average salary of any industry in the country, 21%higher than the average salary of workers in the information media and telecommunications industry (AUD $2,236),
and 30% higher than that of workers in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry (AUD $2,082).5

5

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/average-weekly-earnings-australia/may-2022

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Organizations With Digitally Skilled Workforces Grow, and Innovate MoreRegularly Than Non-Digital Peers
Just as workers hope to earn more by increasing their digital proficiency, the predominant reasons APAC employers
provide digital training to their employees are centered on improving the organization’s bottom line. More than halfof employers provide training to improve operational efficiency (59%) and employee productivity (52%).
In a number of measures, the organizations that employ workers with advanced digital skills enjoy the greatest
boosts to their revenue and other key business outcomes. Organizations in the APAC region that employ advanced
digital workers — such as software developers or cloud architects — report 2021 annual revenues 150% higher
than organizations that employ only basic digital workers, and 286% higher than those that employ intermediate
digital workers.
CHART 52021 APAC Employer Median Revenue
In 2022 USD

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Increased digitization of APAC employers — whether through hiring or upskilling — also has demonstrable impacts
on two additional key performance indicators: innovation and revenue growth. More than three quarters (76%) oforganizations that employ advanced digital workers brought a new or improved product to market over the past
two years, a rate 15 points higher than intermediate digital organizations (61%) and 31 points higher than basic
digital organizations (45%).
CHART 6Growth and Innovation by Level of Digital Skills Employed% Steady revenue growth (10%+)% InnovatedIn addition to — and likely, in part, as a result of — increased innovation, two-thirds (66%) of advanced digitalorganizations reported steady revenue growth (defined as annual growth of 10% or more) over the past year; bycomparison, 43% of basic digital organizations and 52% of intermediate digital organizations experienced steadyannual revenue growth.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

The benefits of increased digitization appear to go hand-in-hand with adoption of cloud technologies, whichrefers to “on-demand delivery of IT resources over the internet,” including data storage and software or otherapplications.6 Thirty-nine percent of APAC employers run most of their business from the cloud; in doing so, theseorganizations significantly increase their likelihood of growing and innovating over organizations that do not use
the cloud.
CHART 7Growth and Innovation by Cloud Adoption% Steady revenue growth (10%+)% Innovated

While organizations that run the majority of their business from the cloud reap the greatest benefits,organizations that shift even part of their operations to the cloud see meaningful improvements in theirrates of growth and innovation over organizations that do not use the cloud.

6

https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-cloud-computing/11

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Digitally Skilled Workers Across APAC Report Higher Job Satisfaction and
Improved Job Security
In addition to commanding higher salaries, APAC employees who develop greater digital proficiency — particularly
those who acquire the most advanced level of skills — also report improvements in other aspects of theirworkplace experiences.

Across the region, 79% of workers with advanced digital skills are highly satisfied with their jobs, a rate
33 percentage points higher than basic digital workers’ satisfaction (46%), and 29 points higher thanthat of intermediate digital workers (50%).

CHART 8Life Evaluation by Skill Level“Please imagine a ladder with steps numbers from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladderrepresents the best possible employment situation for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst
possible employment situation for you.
On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel your employment situation is at this time?”% Rating job satisfaction as an 8 or higher

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

While digital workers across the region generally experience gains in job satisfaction, there are differences per
country. Generally, workers in middle-income economies, such as India, Indonesia, and Thailand, report both thehighest overall levels of satisfaction, as well as the largest satisfaction advantage for advanced digital workers overbasic digital workers.
CHART 9Job Satisfaction Among Basic and Advanced Digital Workers% Rating job satisfaction as an 8 or higher
Basic digital workers

Advanced digital workers

Meanwhile, workers in high-income economies — such as Australia and Japan — see smaller increases in job
satisfaction after workers acquire more advanced digital skills.
While Gallup research finds measures like job satisfaction and employee engagement are highly important andbeneficial to both individual workers and their employers, one metric that has become increasingly relevant —particularly within the technology sector — is job security. Despite the economic uncertainty around the globe,
the most advanced digital workers in the APAC region report the highest levels of confidence in their job security.
For workers who are concerned about losing their current job or being able to secure new employment, this may
provide yet another incentive to improve their digital skill set.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Among workers who use advanced digital skills, 77% say their job security is an eight or higher on a scale of zero
to 10. By comparison, roughly half of basic (45%) and intermediate (51%) digital workers are as confident in theirjob security.
CHART 10

”On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means not secure at all and 10 meanscompletely secure, how secure is your current job?”% Rating job security as an 8 or higher

About Three-Quarters of APAC Organizations Have Digital Job Openings; 72%
Say Hiring for These Roles Is a Challenge
Most advanced digital workers appear to be less concerned with job security than their peers with basic orintermediate digital skills, likely because they know how in-demand their skills are. Over three-quarters (76%) of
APAC employers report they are seeking to fill job openings that require digital skills.
This widespread need for digital talent may be creating a greater demand than the supply of workers available.
Almost half of digital employers say they either do not receive enough qualified applicants for these openings orthey lose qualified applicants to more competitive offers from other companies (46% and 45%, respectively).
While this competition may be beneficial for workers, it is a major hurdle for hiring managers. More than seven in
10 (72%) employers say it is challenging to hire workers with the right digital skills, with one-quarter (25%) saying
it is “a significant challenge.”
Even the middle-income APAC countries — where advanced digital workers report the largest advantages as aresult of their digital skills — experience these acute shortages in digital talent. For example, in Thailand, digital
hiring is a near-universal obstacle. Ninety-four percent of Thai organizations find hiring digital talent challenging,with half of these organizations categorizing the challenge as “significant.” More than 80% of organizations inIndia, Indonesia, and Malaysia report similar challenges.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

CHART 11

“Please indicate if, and to what extent, hiring employees with the digital skills yourorganization needs is a challenge.”% A significant challenge% Somewhat of a challenge

Due to rounding, segments may sum to the totals shown, +/-1.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Formal Degree Requirements Exacerbate Digital Hiring Challenges
To a certain extent, these hiring challenges may be related to a lack of local workers who possess the digital skills
companies need — particularly in India and Indonesia, where 83% and 73% of workers, respectively, use no digitalskills at all.
Additionally, organizations may be hindering their own ability to hire for these roles by having stringent degree
requirements. Across APAC, 38% of organizations require a bachelor’s degree to be hired into an entry-level ITjob, and a further 38% say they prefer — but do not require — entry-level IT staff to have a bachelor’s degree.
Companies that require a bachelor’s degree are about twice as likely to say hiring digital workers is “a significant
challenge” (32%), compared with companies that only prefer entry-level IT workers have a bachelor’s degree (17%).
CHART 12

Difficulty in Hiring Digital Workers by Degree Requirements for IT Staff% A significant challenge% Somewhat of a challenge

Due to rounding, segments may sum to the totals shown, +/-1.

This relationship also bears out at the country level. The four APAC countries whose employers report the greatestdifficulty in hiring digital workers — Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia — are also the most likely to say theyrequire IT employees to have a bachelor’s degree. These countries’ hiring difficulties may stem from a shortage ofworkers who meet their requirements, as these countries also have the lowest proportion of digital workers who
have obtained a degree.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

CHART 13

Bachelor’s Degree Requirements and Attainment% Employers that require a bachelor’s degree% Digital workers who have a bachelor’s degree

Conversely, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan report lower levels of hiring difficulty, as wellas less prevalent bachelor’s degree requirements for IT staff, despite larger proportions of their workforces
holding a degree.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

More APAC Organizations Are Open to Certification and Training as a
Degree SubstituteIn response to these hiring challenges, many APAC organizations
seem to recognize the barrier that strict degree requirements pose
to hiring, and are adjusting their hiring practices accordingly.
This is an important development, as digital workers in the Asia
Pacific region are about twice as likely to hold a digital certification(50%) as they are to hold a bachelor’s degree (27%). By relaxing
the degree requirements of their job openings, organizations thatallow digital certifications or trainings to substitute or complement
degrees may be more than doubling the pool of digital workers whoare eligible to apply for these roles.

of employers in the region say digital
certifications or training courses
are acceptable substitutes for abachelor’s degree.

CHART 14Credentials Held by Digital Workers in Asia
% Has a bachelor’s degree and digital certification% Has a digital certification, but no bachelor’s degree% Has a bachelor’s degree, but no digital certification% Has neither a digital certification, nor a bachelor’s degree

Due to rounding, segments may sum to 100%, +/-1.

Importantly, the group of digital workers whose hiring eligibility stands to expand the most through flexible degree
requirements is also the group that is most scarce in the region. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the most advanced
digital workers hold digital certifications, but not a bachelor’s degree. These workers are already demonstrating
they have the required skills through their current employment, but would not be eligible to apply — at leastaccording to the job postings — for similar roles in organizations that require bachelor’s degrees.

APAC Workers Overwhelmingly Express Interest in Additional Training
While organizations could alleviate some hiring difficulties by allowing industry certifications to satisfy educational
requirements, upskilling their current workforce may be the better solution. When asked about getting training
for 26 digital skills — ranging from productivity software and cloud-based tools to artificial intelligence andprogramming languages — 79% of APAC digital workers said they would be “extremely interested” or “veryinterested” in participating in training for at least one digital skill.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

CHART 15APAC Workers’ Interest in Additional Digital Skills Training% Extremely interested% Very interested

Due to rounding, segments may sum to the totals shown, +/-1.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Workers’ interest is not centered on a single skill, or even a cluster of skills. For each of the 26 skills, at least 43% ofdigital workers express interest, and the average APAC worker is interested in training for 13 of these skills.
While the skills themselves receive comparable levels of interest, the overall intensity of interest varies far moreby country. Of the 26 skills, Indian and Thai workers express interest in additional training for 22 and 20 of thoseskills, respectively. Meanwhile, the average Japanese worker is interested in training for just four skills, the fewest of
any country. This may reflect the outsized benefits workers in middle-income economies see from digital training,
compared with those in high-income economies.
CHART 16

Number of Digital Skills Workers are Interested in Pursuing
Average number of skills, out of 26 skills

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Future-Ready: 5G, Cryptocurrency, and the Metaverse Are Here to Stay in APAC
With most organizations currently struggling to hire for jobs related to existing technologies, hiring managers may
not be relishing the prospect of a new set of challenges; however, if APAC employers’ predictions are to be believed,that is what the future holds.
When asked how likely it is that their organization will adopt 10 emerging technologies — such as
artificial intelligence, edge and quantum computing, and blockchain and cryptocurrency — about two-thirds(67%) of organizations say at least one of these technologies is likely to become a standard part of their business
operations. More than half of employers (56%) believe multiple technologies will become standard, and 17% say
all 10 will be a part of their organization’s business.
CHART 17

“On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means ‘not likely at all’ and 10 means ‘extremely likely,’
how likely or unlikely is it that each of the following becomes a standard part of how yourorganization does business in the future?”% 8 or higher

As with their workers’ interest in training for new skills, employers in India and Thailand predict their organizations
will adopt more emerging digital technologies than any other APAC country, while Japanese employers foresee
adopting just one of these 10 technologies. Still, employers across the region clearly see the new wave ofinnovation on the horizon, and would do well to begin preparing for its arrival.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

About Amazon Web Services
Amazon is committed to investing hundreds of millions of dollars to provide 29 million people around the world
with access to free cloud computing skills training by 2025. The company is providing this free skills training
through a range of AWS-designed programs, making the latest technical knowledge accessible to anyone who hasever considered a career in cloud computing. To learn more and to get started, visit aboutamazon.com/29million.

About Gallup
Gallup delivers forward-thinking research, analytics and advice to help leaders solve their most pressing problems.
Combining more than 80 years of experience with its global reach, Gallup knows more about the attitudes andbehaviors of the world’s constituents, employees and customers than any other organization. Gallup consultants
help private and public sector organizations boost organic growth through measurement tools, strategic advice
and education. Gallup’s professionals deliver services at client organizations through the web and in more than 30
offices around the world.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Methodology
Contents

Data sources and sample• Country economic designations

Gallup Surveys• Data sources and survey collection details

Findings from the AWS Global Digital Skills Study arebased on web surveys conducted August 2-23, 2022,with the following worker and employer populations
and markets globally:- Gallup surveys- Job vacancies- Other external sources• Definition of key concepts

Country

Languages

Worker

Employer

Australia

English

2,164

775

BrazilPortuguese

1,755

336

- Prevalence of digital skills by country

CanadaEnglish

1,501

391

- Salary premium of digital skills

China

1,233

394

- Digital skills- Commonly used digital skills• Analytic methods- GDP estimates- Hiring experiment (conjoint)

Country economic designations
World Bank Income Classification

CountryHigh Income

1,715

355

Germany

German1,533

367

Hong Kong,
S.A.R. of China(Traditional)

1,298

356

Hindi, English

2,005

769

Bahasa Indonesian

1,412

348

Italy

Italian

1,342

353

Japan

Japanese

2,796

974

Malaysia

English, Malay

1,405

357

English

1,448

374

1,258

351

1,483

364

1,400

339

CanadaIndonesia

Japan

New Zealand

New ZealandSingapore

Singapore

South Korea
Taiwan, Provinceof China
Thailand
United Kingdom

ChineseEnglish, Chinese(Simplified)South Korea

KoreanTaiwan, Provinceof China(Traditional)

ChineseThailand

Thai

1,296

359

China

United Kingdom

English

1,522

390

India

United States

English

3,010

1,178

31,576

9,130

BrazilMiddle Income

FrenchIndia

Germany
Hong Kong,
S.A.R. of China
Italy

Chinese(Simplified)FranceAustralia
France(Brazilian)Indonesia

T

Malaysia
Thailand23

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Total:AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

The worker data are weighted to match national
demographics in each of the selected countries ofgender, age, race (U.S. only), Hispanic ethnicity (U.S.
only), education, employment status and region (allexcept Singapore). Demographic weighting targets
are based on the most recent Gallup World Poll data
figures for online population aged 18 and older in eachof the target markets. Gallup also created projection
weights based on population figures for analyzing
global, aggregate-level data, which were used for someanalyses. The weighting process was as follows:

Respondents were recruited using an opt-in, online
sample in each country. Thus, only workers andemployers aged 18 and older who are internet users
were included in this research. Workers were eligible
to participate in the first section of the survey if they
were employed in any way, and they were eligible forthe digital skills section if they worked in a job thatinvolved handling information and used a computer.
This digital skills restriction terminated the survey for
4,601 respondents out of 31,576.
For the employer survey, respondents were eligible
if they were employed and indicated that they werea mid- or senior-level business leader, information
technology (IT) leader, or IT decision-maker working
in the private or public sector in an organization withat least five employees. For the digital skills section,
employers were also required to employ workers thatuse a computer. This digital skills restriction terminatedthe survey for 502 respondents out of 9,130.

• The base weights are set to 1 for all cases collected
for the survey.
• Gallup constructed post-stratification weights
to correct for age, gender, education, region
and employment status. For the U.S., race andHispanic ethnicity were also adjusted through poststratification. For Singapore, region was not included
in post-stratification.
• The weights obtained through the post-stratification
step were further trimmed to avoid extreme small
weights. The trimmed weights were then normalized
to make sure they sum up to the number ofcompleted interviews.
• The normalized weights were further projected to the
population size of adults (18 and older) with accessto internet within each country. The population size
is estimated with the age 15 and older population
size released by the World Bank (exception: theU.S. age 15 and older population size is based on
2021 Current Population Survey) and estimatedpercentages of age 18 and older internet users
among the age 15 and older population based on
2021 Gallup World Poll estimates.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Below is the summary of credibility intervals and design effects for each country for the worker survey data:
Credibility Intervals for Sample Size Used for Analysis
Country

DesignEffect

100

200

350

500

750

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

Australia

1.44

12.0%

8.5%

6.4%

5.4%

4.4%

3.8%

3.1%

2.7%

2.4%

2.2%

2.0%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

Brazil

1.19

10.9%

7.7%

5.8%

4.9%

4.0%

3.4%

2.8%

2.4%

2.2%

2.0%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

1.5%

Canada

1.31

11.5%

8.1%

6.1%

5.1%

4.2%

3.6%

3.0%

2.6%

2.3%

2.1%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

China

2.00

14.1% 10.0%

7.6%

6.3%

5.2%

4.5%

3.7%

3.2%

2.8%

2.6%

2.4%

2.2%

2.1%

2.0%

France

1.93

13.9%

9.8%

7.4%

6.2%

5.1%

4.4%

3.6%

3.1%

2.8%

2.5%

2.3%

2.2%

2.1%

2.0%

Germany

1.52

12.3%

8.7%

6.6%

5.5%

4.5%

3.9%

3.2%

2.8%

2.5%

2.3%

2.1%

2.0%

1.8%

1.7%

Hong Kong, S.A.R. of China

2.27

15.1% 10.7%

8.1%

6.7%

5.5%

4.8%

3.9%

3.4%

3.0%

2.8%

2.5%

2.4%

2.2%

2.1%

India

2.82

16.8% 11.9%

9.0%

7.5%

6.1%

5.3%

4.3%

3.8%

3.4%

3.1%

2.8%

2.7%

2.5%

2.4%

Indonesia

1.43

11.9%

8.4%

6.4%

5.3%

4.4%

3.8%

3.1%

2.7%

2.4%

2.2%

2.0%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

Italy

2.14

14.6% 10.4%

7.8%

6.5%

5.3%

4.6%

3.8%

3.3%

2.9%

2.7%

2.5%

2.3%

2.2%

2.1%

Japan

1.19

10.9%

7.7%

5.8%

4.9%

4.0%

3.5%

2.8%

2.4%

2.2%

2.0%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

1.5%

Malaysia

1.50

12.2%

8.7%

6.5%

5.5%

4.5%

3.9%

3.2%

2.7%

2.4%

2.2%

2.1%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

New Zealand

1.23

11.1%

7.9%

5.9%

5.0%

4.1%

3.5%

2.9%

2.5%

2.2%

2.0%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

Singapore

1.69

13.0%

9.2%

6.9%

5.8%

4.7%

4.1%

3.4%

2.9%

2.6%

2.4%

2.2%

2.1%

1.9%

1.8%

South Korea

1.84

13.6%

9.6%

7.3%

6.1%

5.0%

4.3%

3.5%

3.0%

2.7%

2.5%

2.3%

2.1%

2.0%

1.9%

Taiwan, Province of China

2.09

14.5% 10.2%

7.7%

6.5%

5.3%

4.6%

3.7%

3.2%

2.9%

2.6%

2.4%

2.3%

2.2%

2.0%

Thailand

1.64

12.8%

9.1%

6.8%

5.7%

4.7%

4.1%

3.3%

2.9%

2.6%

2.3%

2.2%

2.0%

1.9%

1.8%

United States

1.13

10.6%

7.5%

5.7%

4.8%

3.9%

3.4%

2.7%

2.4%

2.1%

1.9%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

1.5%

United Kingdom

1.15

10.7%

7.6%

5.7%

4.8%

3.9%

3.4%

2.8%

2.4%

2.1%

2.0%

1.8%

1.7%

1.6%

1.5%

Credibility intervals replace margins of error in cases where nonprobability samples were used. Refer to theAmerican Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) statement on credibility intervals, “Understanding
a credibility interval and how it differs from the margin of sampling error in a public opinion poll” for more
information about credibility intervals for nonprobability samples.
Question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings ofpublic opinion polls. Opt-in panel samples can also introduce bias due to the sample available in each country. For
example, in developing countries, opt-in panel respondents tend to be in urban areas, earn a higher income and be
more educated.

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Job vacancies

For the EU member countries, India, and Hong Kong,
Burning Glass did not classify skills into aggregategroups. Therefore, Gallup researchers classified skills as
digital by building a list from information technology
and related occupations. For the EU, researchers
used the list of skills associated with Information
Technology Professionals and Technicians as well as
Science and Engineering Professionals (both using theEU’s European Skills, Competencies, Qualifications andOccupations (ESCO) level 2 typology for occupations).
To streamline the analysis, the largest economy,
Germany, served as the reference. This resulted in 463
skills, which were then hand-coded as digital or not.
Three hundred and thirty-nine were deemed digital.
This list was then combined with the U.S.-based list andthe combined list of discrete skills was used to classify
all discrete skills advertised across the EU. A similar
method was employed for India and Hong Kong, using
the skills associated with information technology, data
science, engineering and other science occupations.
There were many spelling variants of coding languages
and related skills, and the final list was 19,939 discrete
skills in both countries combined.

Gallup purchased data for 33 countries from Burning
Glass, a U.S.-based labor market analytics company,
which was recently merged with Emsi and is now called
Lightcast. The sample was all advertised vacancies
between June 2021 and May 2022, for a total of 101
million distinct jobs. A limitation of the sample is that
Burning Glass scrapes ads from company websites andother online sources, so job vacancies filled throughoffline advertisements are missed. Previous research in
the U.S. finds that this introduces a slight bias against
vacancies in low-paying service and construction
jobs.1 The countries include all European Union
member countries except Hungary and Slovenia (25countries). The data also include former EU member
the United Kingdom, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand,
Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India. Thus, thesample overlaps with 11 of the 19 countries surveyed(Germany, France, and Italy are the others).
The analysis proceeded in several steps: 1) classify
all skills as digital or not, 2) analyze the prevalenceof digital skills, education requirements and salarypremium for each country, and 3) aggregate countrylevel estimates to the all-country total using thenumber of ads as the weight.

Other external sources
Gallup World Poll, which uses random sampling
methods to achieve representative samples, was used
to estimate the number of employed people in the
country and the percentage of households that haveaccess to the internet. National government agencies
were used to estimate mean wages for workers.

The classification of digital skills required different
techniques for the various countries. Skills are captured
at the advertisement level by Burning Glass and listed
discretely for each ad. Burning Glass classifies skills into
aggregated categories called “families” and “clusters”— one of the families is “information technology.” Allskills under this family were counted as digital skills,
but AWS and Gallup concluded that other skills would
also count. The search uncovered several clusters withdigital skills: “drafting and engineering,” “robotics,”“data mining,” “animation and game design,” “graphic
and visual design software,” “user interface and user
experience,” “graphic and visual design,” “online
marketing,” and the discrete skill: “blockchain.” All skills
listed under these clusters were included. The final
compendium resulted in 1,681 total discrete digitalskills advertised in the U.S. The same method was usedin the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia,
and New Zealand.
1

To adjust income to 2022 USD, researchers started
with 2017 Purchasing Power Parity indexes from theWorld Bank International Comparisons Program, thenprojected 2017 PPPs to June of 2022 using national
consumer price growth indexes from 2017 to June
2022. These data were obtained from the U.S. BLS,
OECD Stats and national data sources.

Rothwell, J. (2014, July 1). Still Searching: Job Vacancies and STEM Skills. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/still-searchingjob-vacancies-and-stem-skills/

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Definitions of key concepts

Which of the following digital skills do you currently
use at work? Please select all that apply.

Digital skills

1) Animation and Game Design

This survey defined digital skills in the native languageof each respondent using the following statement:“Some people use computers and similar devices aspart of their work. The term ‘digital skills’ refers to theability to effectively use digital devices, communication
applications, and electronic information networks toperform work.”

2) Application Development, Security, Interface
3) Artificial Intelligence
4) Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
5) Blockchain6) Cloud-based tools (e.g., file-sharing

services, messaging applications like Slack,cloud-based CRM tools)

The survey then asked respondents to classify
themselves into one of four digital skill categories,
which were used in the analysis.

7) Data Mining
8) Internet of Things (IoT)

Which of the following best describes the extent towhich you use digital skills in your current job?

9) Routine business software (e.g., Microsoft Office,

Google Docs, Apache Open Office, etc.)

1) I do not use a computer or tablet as part of my job.

10) Network Configuration, General Networking2) I use basic digital skills such as email, word11) Graphic and Visual Design

processing, filling out electronic forms or entering
data from them, or social media posting.

12) Online Marketing
13) Robotics

3) I use intermediate digital skills that require

14) Software Development Principles

some training but do not require knowledge of aprogramming language. For example, drag-anddrop website design, troubleshooting applications or
network performance, or data analysis.

15) Technical Support
16) Web Development
17) System Design and Implementation4) I use advanced digital skills that require a18) SQL Databases and Programming

programming language or involve skills such as
cloud architecture design/maintenance, software/
application development, artificial intelligence or
machine learning.

19) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
20) Database Administration
21) JavaScript and jQuery

Commonly used digital skills22) Cybersecurity

As an alternative item and digital skills classificationand validation, the survey also asked respondents
which of 26 digital skills they use at work, if any. This
item was asked on both the worker and employer
surveys, with slightly different wording. The number ofskills selected was used to assess the depth and levelof digital skill use at the individual and organizational
levels. At the individual level, respondents who use fiveor more digital skills were considered advanced digitalusers. There was a moderately positive correlation
between self-identified advanced digital users and thenumber of skills selected (r=.33).

23) Operating Systems24) Scripting Languages
25) Software Quality Assurance
26) Java

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AWS Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study﻿ | The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce

Analytic methods
Prevalence of digital skills by country
To estimate the percentage of workers in each country
that use no, basic, intermediate or advanced digital skills,
researchers started with weighted country-level means.
Weighting targeted the working population with internet
access. Thus, weighted country-level results pertain to theinternet-using population, but they were not intended torepresent the working population more generally.
To estimate more general working-population means,
researchers multiplied the percent of households withinternet access, available through Gallup World Poll,by the percentage of internet users with digital skills.
Define DS as the share of workers with digital skills andsubscripts “L,” “C” and “I” as referring to the level of digitalskills, the country, and the internet-using population,
respectively. “I” refers to the share of households withinternet access. The following formula (1) calculates theshare of workers with skill level “L.” The share with nodigital skills (NS) is then calculated as 1 less the sum of
the DS shares for each skill level (other than none).
1) DSl,c=DSl.c.ixIc2) NS= 1-∑DSl,cThis is equivalent to assuming that workers with nointernet access do not use a computer or other digitalskills at work. This is a conservative assumption, but it
corrects for the strong bias in the opposite direction:that internet users are far more likely to use digital skills
at work. The ideal estimate of digital skills prevalence
would be drawn from a random sample of all workers,
regardless of internet status, but as that was notpossible in this study, this method provides the next bestalternative estimate.
Salary premium of digital skills
The digital skill salary premium is the marginal
percentage increase in income for those using advanced
digital skills compared to those who do not use digitalskills at work but are otherwise similar in their observableproductive characteristics.
This requires the collection of accurate self-reported
income data. One concern is that the sample, especiallyin developing countries, is biased toward respondents
with higher socioeconomic status, since internet access is28

a prerequisite for participation. One tool to guard against
this bias is to constrain outliers. Researchers considered
implementing a rule based on the number of standard
deviations from the mean, but realized even the mean
was obviously biased upwards in the sample whencompared to national estimates (for most countries).
Researchers decided to use objective data on the income
distribution from the World Inequality Database,which uses data from national tax records. Specifically,
researchers downloaded the income thresholds for
adults in the 95th and 99th percentiles of the national
income distributions for every country in the sample.
For self-reported incomes between the 95th and 99th
percentiles, the minimum WID threshold was imputed.
For incomes that were at or above the top 1%, the top
1% (or 99th percentile) threshold was imputed. Thisaffected 10% of the sample (6% from the top 1%).
Researchers strongly believe this gives more accurate
data and certainly constrains the outliers.
The estimation equation, which follows the Mincerian
wage regression, can be written down as follows:
3) Ln(Incomei )= α+β(DSi,C)+δi,c+κc+εThe log of income is regressed on a binary variable forthe level of digital skills, with workers who do not use
digital skills at work omitted as a reference category.
A vector of demographic characteristics is included,
consisting of binary variables for age categories, hours
worked, gender, nativity and education. Country andprovince/regional level fixed effects are included. For
global estimates, these estimates were weighted by the
projection weight, described above, which essentiallygives higher weight to respondents that represent
more workers. Point estimates on advanced skills arewell above zero with 95% confidence intervals with orwithout clustering errors by country and region.
To test the robustness of these results, researchers also
controlled for sector and occupational fixed effects
and re-estimated the model using the number of skills
selected instead of the “advanced.” These results werequalitatively similar, suggesting the benchmark model
was robust. The beta coefficient on advanced digital skillsin the global sample was 0.65. The coefficient on use of
five or more digital skills was 0.55.
As another, more substantial robustness check, thesalary data associated with advertised vacancies using
the Burning Glass database was analyzed. To estimate

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workers who use many digital skills classified themselves
as intermediate rather than advanced digital users.
Coefficients also became notably larger in New Zealand andAustralia.

the digital skill premium for each country, researchers
took the average of the minimum and maximum salaryrange associated with each advertisement, coded discrete
experience and educational requirements into binary
categories, and regressed the log of income on digital skill
intensity. Both binary coding (ad lists at least one digitalskill) and levels of digital skill intensity were used. All
ads were coded by the number of digital skills listed into
0,1,2,3,4,5 to 9, or 10 or more. Salary premium models
used both definitions of digital skills, but the preferred
estimate compares ads with 10 or more digital skills to
those with 0, as salary rises in a linear fashion with thenumber of digital skills in all countries in the sample.

The countries in the sample represent 67% of global GDP
and include a mix of lower-middle, upper-middle and highincome countries. Given the diversity of the sample, its highweight in global GDP, and the omission of countries withlarge tech sectors (e.g., most of Europe, Mexico, Western
Asia, Russia, Argentina), it is reasonable to assume that the
GDP-weighted contribution of digital skills to GDP is similarin the countries not sampled. Thus, the estimate of global
GDP divides the observed GDP effect by the observed
global share of GDP.

Given the huge sample size (101 million vacancies), theseestimates were precisely estimated and revealed a wage
premium for advanced digital skills of 40% in the sample
of 33 countries and a similar value in the matched-country
sample. Reassuringly, the premium did not appear to varyin the countries with aggregated skill data relative to thecountries where researchers created their own digitalskills tag.
GDP estimates
To calculate GDP estimates at the country level, researchers
ran the preferred regression model (equation 3) separately
for each country and used the country-specific betas aseffect estimates. In this way, GDP estimates were calculated
based on the digital skills premium associated with basic,
intermediate and advanced skills. These premia were
multiplied by the average wage for each country, the total
number of workers in each country and the percentage ofworkers in each skill domain, after making the adjustments
discussed above. The result of the adjustments was togreatly reduce the estimated population of digitally skilledworkers and therefore suppress the GDP estimates. The
national average wage, obtained from external sources,
was used instead of the survey-based sample average
wage, because the latter was artificially high due to the
opt-in internet-only sample bias, even after the trimming
discussed above.
Country-level estimates were replicated using thealternative method for identifying advanced digital users(i.e., the selection of five or more skills). The results werelargely well-aligned, except for Japan, where the coefficienton advanced digital skill use turned from negative (in thebaseline model) to significant, large and positive. Further
investigation revealed many high-earning Japanese
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