proportion of their workforce employed in manufacturing. This trend is particularly evident across Thailand, the ROK, and the Philippines show higher GDP shares relative to employment shares, with the Philippines demonstrating a particularly pronounced gap (19.4% GDP share versus 7.3% employment share). These productivity gaps suggest above-average value added per worker, sophistication rather than labor-dependent production processes. Conversely, economies like Turkiye, Pakistan, Nepal, and Hong Kong have higher employment shares relative to GDP shares. Notably, Nepal exhibits the most pronounced disparity with an employment share of 9.4% compared with a GDP contribution of only 5.4%. Pakistan too shows a similar pattern (14.9% employment share versus 11.3% GDP contribution). Both economies exhibit highly labor-intensive manufacturing structures, with employment shares outpacing their value- added contributions. This setup indicates relatively low LP, meaning there is significant job creation compared with economic output, which implies that productivity improvements usually fall behind LP in the manufacturing sector, defined as manufacturing value added per manufacturing employee, end, with manufacturing productivity far above that of any other economy. High-productivity performers also include the ROC, the ROK, and Japan. 80 | APO PRODUCTIVITY OUTLOOK 2026 | ENERGY EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY IMPACTS, AND COMPOSITE INDICATOR DEVELOPMENT