Key findings
- Elementary occupations score 2.0/10 and are Kiribati's largest occupation group at 24.8% (10.2k workers). Kiribati has one of the highest proportions of elementary workers relative to total employment of any Pacific nation. This reflects the limited diversification of the formal economy. Construction labourers building seawalls, coastal protection structures, and government buildings on South Tarawa (the main island and capital), port workers at Betio Port, sanitation workers in crowded South Tarawa - one of the most densely populated atolls in the Pacific at 3,200 people/km2 - and domestic workers form this group.
- Craft and related trades workers score 2.5/10 at 21.7% (9k workers). Traditional boat builders constructing outrigger canoes (wa) for inter-island travel across the 33 Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Island atolls, carpenters building maneaba (traditional meeting houses) using pandanus and coconut materials, and mechanics servicing the vehicle fleet on South Tarawa and outboard motor engines used for fishing and inter-island transport all contribute. Kiribati's dispersed geography - spread across an ocean area of 3.5 million km2 - makes craft skills in boat maintenance and repair essential economic capabilities.
- Service and sales workers score 3.5/10 at 16.8% (6.9k workers). Retail workers at the Betio town market and shops along the South Tarawa causeway, restaurant and hotel workers at the Tarawa Hotel and other small accommodations, and food vendors at the Bairiki market form the bulk of this group. Kiribati has a very small tourism sector - fewer than 6,000 visitor arrivals per year - making this primarily a domestic services sector rather than a tourism-dependent one.
- Clerical support workers score 8.5/10 at 3.3% (1.4k workers). The Government of Kiribati (Te Beretitenti) is the largest formal employer, with administrative workers in Bairiki (the government administrative centre) at the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Kiribati Provident Fund (KPF), and Bank of Kiribati. The South Tarawa formal economy is almost entirely government-dependent; remittances from Kiribati seafarers working on international merchant vessels under the iTaukei Seafarers Training Centre (KSTC) represent a major income source that partially bypasses the domestic labour market.
41k workers, ILO ILOSTAT data from Kiribati National Statistics Office
Employment data comes from ILO ILOSTAT (CC BY 4.0), based on the Kiribati National Statistics Office (NSO), using ISCO-08 major group classifications. GDP per capita $2,559 (World Bank 2025). Total covered workforce: 41k workers. Kiribati is one of the smallest and most geographically dispersed national economies in the Pacific. Its unique characteristic - straddling the equator and spanning three island groups across four time zones - makes it impossible to deliver services to its outer island population without air or sea transport, shaping a labour market where physical presence and manual skills are structurally necessary.
The 3.5k skilled agricultural and fisheries workers (8.5%) represent subsistence and small-scale commercial activity on the outer islands of the Kiribati Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which at 3.5 million km2 is one of the largest in the world. The Kiribati National Fisheries Authority (KNFA) manages access agreements with foreign fishing fleets; the government earns fishing licence fees but most commercial fishing is done by licensed foreign vessels, not domestic workers. Domestic agricultural production centres on copra (dried coconut) and breadfruit cultivation on the outer atolls, with toddy (fermented coconut sap) production for both consumption and a small artisanal alcohol sector.
The 5k professionals (8.0% of total) - including teachers at the Kiribati Teachers College, medical professionals at Nawerewere Hospital in South Tarawa, and government advisors - are the most formal-sector oriented occupation group. Many Kiribati professionals work under contracts supported by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and New Zealand MFAT technical assistance programmes.
The most AI-exposed jobs in Kiribati
Clerical support workers at 8.5/10 cover 1.4k workers (3.3% of total) in Kiribati - all effectively concentrated in South Tarawa's government and financial district in Bairiki. The Government of Kiribati employs the bulk of Kiribati's formal sector workforce; the Ministry of Finance's Expenditure Division, the Kiribati Provident Fund (KPF - which manages compulsory savings contributions from formal sector workers), and the Bank of Kiribati (the only commercial bank operating in the outer islands via mobile banking officers) all employ administrative staff handling data processing, record keeping, and correspondence. The RERF (Revenue Equalisation Reserve Fund) - Kiribati's sovereign wealth fund built from historical phosphate mining royalties - is managed from Tarawa with small administrative staff overseeing asset allocation.
Professionals at 6.5/10 (5k workers, 8.0%) include teachers at the Kiribati Teachers College in Tarawa (which trains primary school teachers for posting across all 33 inhabited atolls), medical professionals at Nawerewere Hospital (including I-Kiribati doctors trained at Fiji School of Medicine and via Australian/New Zealand scholarship schemes), and government economists and statisticians at the NSO and Ministry of Finance. Legal professionals are extremely few - Kiribati has a small bar, with most complex legal work handled by New Zealand or Australian law firms retained on contract.
| Occupation Group (ISCO-08) | AI Score | Workers | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clerical support workers (4) | 8.5/10 | 1.4k | 3.3% |
| Professionals (2) | 6.5/10 | 3.3k | 8.0% |
| Managers (1) | 5.5/10 | 2k | 4.9% |
| Technicians and assoc. professionals (3) | 5.5/10 | 2.8k | 6.8% |
| Service and sales workers (5) | 3.5/10 | 6.9k | 16.8% |
| Plant and machine operators (8) | 3.0/10 | 2.5k | 6.0% |
| Skilled agricultural workers (6) | 3.0/10 | 3.5k | 8.5% |
| Craft and related trades workers (7) | 2.5/10 | 9k | 21.7% |
| Elementary occupations (9) | 2.0/10 | 10.2k | 24.8% |
Kiribati seafarers - working on merchant vessels worldwide under the Kiribati Seafarers Training Centre programme - represent one of the country's largest income sources but are not captured in domestic employment statistics. The onshore workforce they support is overwhelmingly manual and low-AI-risk.
The safest jobs in Kiribati
Elementary occupations score 2.0/10 (10.2k workers, 24.8%) as Kiribati's single largest occupation group. The high concentration of elementary workers reflects two features of Kiribati's economy: first, the heavy government infrastructure investment required to maintain functioning services on a dispersed atoll nation; second, the limited pathway into formal skilled employment given the small higher education system. Construction labourers on ADB-financed seawall and coastal protection projects - which are critical given that most of Kiribati's land is less than 2m above sea level - represent a growing share as climate adaptation spending increases.
Craft workers at 2.5/10 (9k workers, 21.7%) are the second-largest group. Kiribati's traditional maritime culture makes boat-building and outboard motor repair skills economically essential across the outer islands, where canoe transport and small motorised boats are the only means of inter-atoll movement. Carpenters, thatchers, and pandanus weavers who build and maintain the traditional maneaba meeting houses on each inhabited island represent a culturally significant craft sector. See the Vanuatu AI jobs analysis, Fiji AI jobs analysis, and the Solomon Islands AI jobs analysis for Pacific regional comparison.
| Occupation Group (ISCO-08) | AI Score | Workers | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary occupations (9) | 2.0/10 | 10.2k | 24.8% |
| Craft and related trades workers (7) | 2.5/10 | 9k | 21.7% |
| Skilled agricultural workers (6) | 3.0/10 | 3.5k | 8.5% |
What this means for Kiribati workers
Kiribati's primary economic threat is not AI - it is sea-level rise. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021) identifies Kiribati as among the countries facing the most severe long-term existential risk from ocean inundation. The Government of Kiribati has been purchasing land in Fiji (Natoavatu Estate on Vanua Levu) as a potential resettlement site. In this context, AI automation risk to the 1.4k clerical workers in Bairiki is a second or third-order policy concern.
For the 10.2k elementary workers and 9k craft workers, AI automation risk over any realistic planning horizon is negligible. The construction labour demand for climate adaptation infrastructure - seawalls, desalination plants, coastal hardening - is likely to increase not decrease over the next decade. Physical infrastructure work in Kiribati's tropical, salt-water environment cannot be automated with current technology.
The professional class - 5k teachers, health workers, and government advisors - face the most structured AI adoption trajectory. Australia and New Zealand technical assistance programmes have introduced digital tools into Kiribati's health and education systems. Telemedicine capabilities built during the COVID-19 period (when Kiribati maintained a zero-COVID posture for over 18 months until 2022) established infrastructure for remote professional services. But the absolute numbers are small and the income impact on total Kiribati welfare is limited relative to climate and remittance dynamics.
See Kiribati's full occupation breakdown
Explore AI exposure, robotics risk, and employment data for all Kiribati occupation groups - or compare Kiribati against 205 other countries.
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Methodology
Employment figures are from ILO ILOSTAT (CC BY 4.0), based on the Kiribati National Statistics Office (NSO), using ISCO-08 major group classifications. GDP per capita $2,559 (World Bank 2025). Covers approximately 41k formally classified Kiribati workers. AI exposure scores are research-based estimates per ISCO-08 group, informed by Frey-Osborne (Oxford), OECD, and IMF studies on task-level automation. They reflect the proportion of an occupation's core tasks that current AI can perform or significantly augment - not predictions of job loss rates.
Frequently asked questions
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Related analyses
Data sources
- ILO ILOSTAT - Employment by sex, occupation (ISCO-08), Kiribati (CC BY 4.0)
- Kiribati National Statistics Office (NSO) - Population and Employment Survey
- World Bank Open Data - Kiribati GDP per capita $2,559, 2025
- Frey, C.B. and Osborne, M.A. (2017). The future of employment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
- IMF - Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work (2024)