Unemployment in these economies is relatively insignificant, and labour shortages are the rule. These economies invested heavily in education and training. The next tier of economies, the newly industrializing countries and areas such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, are still struggling to make that change. Although unemployment is low in Indonesia and Thailand, more than half the working population is dependent on agriculture. It relies on promoting employment abroad to give jobs to its growing population.
Economies moving from a planned to a market structure face a different set of challenges.
Reforms in former socialist states in Central and South-East Asia may put hundreds of thousands of workers in state and collective enterprises out of a job. Mongolia already has 9.4 per cent unemployment. South Asia, meanwhile, remains plagued by underemployment, caused in part by its large agricultural sector and its slow pace of economic development. In Nepal, almost half the employed work only for part of the year. Pacific island developing economies are similarly beset by slow economic growth at the same time their labour pool is expanding rapidly.