Page 68 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

AEI Insights, Vol 7, Issue 1, 2021

Table 4 reports three types of labour force participation rate (LFPR) separated by different
education level, namely the LRPR (Basic education), the LFPR (Intermediate education), the
LFPR (Advanced education). The basic education level means primary and lower secondary
education and advanced education level means degree. The intermediate is in-between of two
categories. There are no statistical data on the topic in Singapore which is excluded from this
analysis. There are four countries in which there is a positive relationship between the LFPR
and education level, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Lao and Thailand. In these countries, workers
with higher education would have a higher likelihood to join the labour force. There are two
countries whose workers with intermediate education level would have the highest level of the
LFPR, namely Cambodia and the Philippines. In these countries, the workers with intermediate
education level would have the highest likelihood to enter the labour market. By contrast, these
are three more countries whose workers with intermediate education level would have the
lowest level of the LFPR, namely, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. In these three countries,
the workers with intermediate education level would have the lowest likelihood to enter the
labour market.

Table 4: Labour force participation (basic, intermediate and advanced education) (2020)
Labour force Labour force Labour force
participation rate participation rate participation rate
(total) (male) (female)
Brunei 52.8 66.0 81.9

Cambodia 81.6 86.1 79.6

Indonesia 62.8 72.2 82.0
Lao PDR 42.2 48.0 75.2

Malaysia 69.0 66.9 69.2
Myanmar 66.1 45.8 66.8

Philippines 63.1 74.3 63.3
Thailand 69.8 72.7 83.8

Vietnam 78.3 76.6 88.3
Average 65.0 67.6 76.6

Notes: Basic education is primary and lower secondary education, Intermediate education is upper secondary and
diploma and advanced education is degree
Source: World Bank (2020)

Figure 3 depicts the relationship between income per person and three types of the LFPR by
education level, namely LFPR at the basic education level, LFPR at the intermediate education
level and LFPR at the advanced education level. Firstly, there is a negative relationship
between GDP per capita and LFPR at the basic education level in ASEAN countries. In other
words, countries with lower income level would tend to have a higher LFPR at the basic
education level. For example, Indonesia’s LFPR at the basic education level (62.8) is relatively
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