(Image source from: Asia To Witness Shrinkage In Work Force By 2050)

According to an analysis from Bloomberg of United Nations data, work force in Asia is set to shrink over the coming decades and will contribute to 50% of the world’s total work force, which is 62% currently. The analysis also indicates that India would overtake China as the biggest source of workers in the region.

As a result of shifting patterns, India would contribute 18.8% to global work force, which is 17.8% currently, where as China would contribute 13% to global work force, reducing from 20.9% now.

Working age population was used as a proxy for labor force in the projections, which pushed Nigeria to third place from ninth along with Ethiopia and Congo stealing place in top ten list.

Central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, who called India's human capital his main medium-term concern, said in an interview that, "Yes we've got really smart computer engineers and we've got scientists who've put a satellite on its way to Mars but what we really are short of is in the middle layer: The good quality factory workers who have high-school degrees, who can do reasonable maths, the capable plumbers, the construction engineers who can build roads and bridges.''

 "We have a lot of those because we are a populous country but we don't have enough. We need to create more of them in a hurry,'' Rajan added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking to address skill shortage, with a new skill and entrepreneurship ministry and a policy for training 400 million workers by 2022.

-Sumana