In the midst of global economic crisis, the World Bank commended the government and other middle income countries in East Asia for stepping up its efforts to cushion the impact of the full-blown global economic crisis on the poor even as the region is increasingly affected by weakening exports, declining private investments, slumping domestic demand, and worsening unemployment.

The emerging issue of job mismatch between the human resource development providers and industries is adding up to the growing scale of unemployment in the local and international labor pool. In the region, the RDC-1 called for a small group meeting of various agencies and the academe to take initial steps to address job mismatch on March 18, 2009 at the NEDA-I Regional Office.