The markets that rank highest in the Total Workforce Index™ are those with the highest relative performance across all four categories. The ability to perform well across two or more of the four main categories, make these five markets the most favorable for general workforce engagement.
Comparison of the Top Five Markets ranked by Total Workforce Index
The top five markets for workforce engagement, based on the rankings of the Total Workforce Index™ are the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Size of the bubble reflects the Relative Availability of each market, while the color reflects Relative Regulation
Minimal Regulatory Impact
Moderate Regulatory Impact
Restrictive Regulatory Impact
With a heavier focus on remote-ready workforce metrics, such as technical infrastructure, language proficiencies and skills availability, the United States rises from 5th to 1st, year-over-year. Meanwhile, New Zealand climbs from 3rd to 2nd place. Canada enters the top five for the first time since 2017 due to the addition of remote skills availability factors to the Index,among other weighting adjustments made for 2020.
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Comparison of the Top Five Markets for Workforce Availability
The top five markets for skills availability, based on the rankings of the Total Workforce Index™ are the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg.
Size of the bubble reflects the Relative Availability of each market, while the color reflects Relative Regulation
Minimal Regulatory Impact
Moderate Regulatory Impact
Restrictive Regulatory Impact
The top five markets for skills availability are the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. The United States ranks 1st and returns to the top five in Availability for the first time since 2017 when it ranked 5th. Singapore drops to the second position, while the remaining markets from the 2019 Availability rankings, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, fall out of the top five altogether.
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Comparison of the Top Five Markets for Workforce Cost Efficiency
The top five markets for Cost Efficiency are the Philippines, Croatia, Morocco, Vietnam and Thailand. These are driven by favorable country dynamics, such as cost of labor and regulations. This is the first time Croatia appears in the top five markets for Cost Efficiency. While the Philippines completes its steady climb over the past three years to secure the top spot, Morocco remains in the third position. Indonesia and Guatemala climb while Thailand dropped from 1st to 5th in the past year.
Size of the bubble reflects the Relative Availability of each market, while the color reflects Relative Regulation
- Minimal Regulatory Impact
- Moderate Regulatory Impact
- Restrictive Regulatory Impact
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Comparison of the Top Five Markets for Workforce Regulation
The top five markets relative to regulatory impact, based on the rankings of the Total Workforce Index™ are Ireland, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark and Norway.
Size of the bubble reflects the Relative Availability of each market, while the color reflects Relative Regulation
- Minimal Regulatory Impact
- Moderate Regulatory Impact
- Restrictive Regulatory Impact
This year’s rankings for Regulation are attributed to the border restrictions (i.e., affecting access to labor) at the time of the analysis, as well as more stringent requirements around labor allocations/quota (i.e., allocations of national versus foreign labor and ratios of permanent versus contingent labor categories). Another contributing factor is changes in how markets define agencies, consultants, freelancers and other contingent types, which result in additional legislative and administrative processes.
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Comparison of the Top Five Markets for Workforce Productivity
The top five markets relative to regulatory impact, based on the rankings of the Total Workforce Index™ are Singapore, United States, Israel, Macau and Hong Kong
Size of the bubble reflects the Relative Availability of each market, while the color reflects Relative Regulation
- Minimal Regulatory Impact
- Moderate Regulatory Impact
- Restrictive Regulatory Impact
This year’s rankings for Productivity are influenced by changes in the average length of a workday and workweek, as well as the average number of working days in a year. Workforce infrastructure (e.g., the technical infrastructure that supports a remote workforce) is also a contributing factor.
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