Japanese companies expanding across Southeast Asia may need to rethink the idea of a single ASEAN workforce strategy. A new Reeracoen Group and Rakuten Insight survey of 3,630 consumers and business leaders across six markets finds sharp differences in hiring, investment, career mobility and AI priorities, with no country leading across every workforce indicator.
Southeast Asia is increasingly important to Japanese companies looking for growth, but new workforce research suggests that treating ASEAN as a single labor market could overlook significant differences in employee priorities and business conditions.
The Great Restructuring: ASEAN Consumer & Business Pulse Survey 2026, published by Reeracoen Group in partnership with Rakuten Insight, surveyed 3,630 consumers and business leaders across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in June 2026.
The findings show different markets emerging around different workforce and business strengths. Vietnam leads consumer optimism, Indonesia records the highest business confidence and career mobility, Thailand leads in business investment growth, while Singapore has the strongest intention to increase AI and technology investment.
For HR leaders, the differences point to a more localized approach to workforce planning.
Indonesia records business confidence of 66%, the highest among the six markets, while 29% of consumers are considering a career change. Malaysia has the strongest domestic-market orientation, with 75% of businesses identifying their home market as their leading growth opportunity.
The Philippines follows closely on business confidence at 65%. Singapore leads in AI and technology investment intent, with 33% of businesses planning investment in those areas. Thailand records the highest business investment growth rate at 28%.
Vietnam presents a different profile. It leads consumer optimism at 48%, while 16% of businesses report expanding headcount and 46% report improving revenue.
Those differences matter for companies building regional talent strategies. Hiring demand, employee mobility and investment in technology are not moving uniformly across ASEAN, meaning recruitment priorities may need to vary by market.
Across the six countries, selective hiring is the most common workforce-growth approach, cited by between 32% and 47% of businesses. Between 7% and 16% report actively expanding headcount, with Vietnam recording the highest expansion rate.
Operational efficiency is the most frequently cited growth opportunity across the region, ranging from 35% to 43%. Technology and AI rank among the three leading opportunities in the markets surveyed, cited by between 24% and 33% of businesses.
That combination creates a challenge for HR teams. Organizations may need to balance cautious headcount expansion with investment in technology, productivity and skills. For Japanese companies, it also means understanding whether a market’s growth opportunity is primarily connected to hiring, automation, domestic demand or investment.
Employee priorities vary just as significantly.
In Vietnam, 39% of consumers considering a career change identify AI and automation as their primary motivation. It is the only market in the survey where AI and automation rank as the leading career-change driver.
AI also appears prominently in Singapore and Indonesia, where 32% and 30% of career-change respondents respectively cite it as a motivation.
The findings suggest that AI adoption is becoming part of the employee value proposition, not simply an enterprise technology decision. Workers may increasingly evaluate employers based on how technology changes their roles, the skills they can develop and the opportunities available in an AI-enabled workplace.
For HR departments, that creates implications for AI skills development, workforce planning, employee retention and career mobility.
Income is another major factor. In Indonesia, 71% of consumers report actively seeking additional income, compared with 70% in the Philippines. Income diversification is the leading financial response to economic pressure in both markets.
That trend could affect how employers approach compensation, benefits and retention. In markets where workers are actively seeking additional income, organizations may need to consider the relationship between pay, career progression and opportunities for skills development.
The survey’s findings reinforce a broader shift in workforce technology and strategy: regional expansion increasingly requires granular labor-market intelligence.
Rather than applying one recruitment model across six countries, multinational organizations may need different approaches to talent sourcing, compensation, skills development and employee engagement depending on local conditions.
For Japanese companies, the challenge extends beyond finding workers. Regional workforce planning increasingly involves understanding why employees move, which skills are becoming valuable, where businesses are investing and how AI is changing career expectations.
Reeracoen’s research ultimately presents ASEAN as a collection of distinct workforce markets rather than a uniform expansion opportunity. For HR leaders, that makes local talent intelligence an increasingly important component of international workforce strategy.
Market Landscape
ASEAN’s workforce technology and recruitment landscape is being shaped by three overlapping trends: selective hiring, AI-driven workforce transformation and increasing employee mobility.
The Reeracoen-Rakuten Insight findings show that businesses across the region share an emphasis on operational efficiency, but the underlying workforce conditions differ considerably.
Singapore’s stronger AI investment intent creates demand for technology and digital skills, while Vietnam combines relatively strong consumer optimism with the region’s highest reported headcount expansion. Indonesia combines high business confidence with elevated career mobility, while Malaysia’s strong domestic orientation presents a different expansion profile.
For HR teams supporting cross-border growth, those differences can influence recruitment channels, workforce planning, compensation strategies, skills programs and employer branding.
The research also suggests that AI is becoming part of the career decision-making process itself, particularly in Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. That makes AI literacy and reskilling relevant not only to technology teams but to broader talent strategies.
Top Insights
- Reeracoen and Rakuten Insight surveyed 3,630 consumers and business leaders across six major ASEAN markets in June 2026.
- Indonesia leads business confidence at 66% and career mobility, with 29% of consumers considering a career change.
- Singapore leads AI and technology investment intent at 33%, highlighting growing demand for digitally capable workforces.
- Vietnam records the highest headcount expansion rate at 16% and leads consumer optimism at 48%.
- AI and automation are the leading career-change motivation for 39% of Vietnamese consumers considering a job move.
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