Social Climate in Cambodia

•       The population of Cambodia is estimated at approximately 15.5 million in 2014, ranking 69th in the world (Vu, 2015).

•       The country enjoys a relatively young population structure with roughly 64.5% of the population belonging to the working age group, which creates the abundance of labor force for manufacturing industry.

•       People below 15-year-old level account for 31.6%, providing huge human resource in the future.

Health Situation

•       In 2010, the mortality rate was 4.1 deaths for men and 2.5 deaths for female per 1000. Life expectancy at birth is 60.5 years for men and 64.3 years in 2008 for women (WHO, 2014).

•       Cambodia is considered a high-burdened country for tuberculosis, diarrhoea, diabetes, and hypertension. Smoking and alcohol consumption is affecting almost half the male population (WPRO, 2011).

Education

•       Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in 2014: 105 (CDRI, 2015)

–       66 private universities

–       39 public university

•       After over a decade of expansion of higher education, especially during the 2000s, the issues of quality and relevance emerged because there was increasing market demand for professionals and skilled workers to serve the growing industries and enterprises (Madhur, 2014).

School Life Expectancy

•       Cambodian children and youth spend fewer years in school than their peers in other ASEAN countries at a  similar stage of economic development.

•       School life expectancy in Cambodia is 10.5 compared to Laos 10.1, Indonesia 12.9, Thailand 12.3, Vietnam 11.9, and the Philippines 11.7 (UNESCO, 2012).

Literacy Rate

•       The literacy rate of young Cambodian people aged from 15 to 24 years old during the period 2009-2013 is estimated at averagely 87% (UNICEF, 2015).

•       About 18% of the labor force (aged 15-64) are either illiterate or have only basic literacy skills while 35% have not completed primary education (Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2010).

•       About 59% of the labor force have no or only some years of primary education.

•       Of the current workforce,

•        only 10% finished basic education

•        4% completed upper secondary education

•        2% hold tertiary qualifications

•       There is no doubt that workforce productivity is an issue in Cambodia (CDRI, 2015).

Skilled Labor

•       Cambodia is encountering a severe problem of shortage of skilled labor.

•       According to the survey by Bruni et al. (2013), three-quarters of surveyed companies state that it is difficult to find qualified workers to fill vacancies.

•       More than half of interviewees report that the employees’ performance does not meet the required level.

•       Generally, the level of skills of employees is relatively low as more than half of workers are associated with elementary occupations.

•       The share of employees at the managerial level and technical-skills requirement level is modestly less than 3%.