Solomon Islands AI Job Risk 2026: Which of 363k Workers Are Most Exposed?

363k workers, ILO ILOSTAT data from Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO)

Employment data comes from ILO ILOSTAT (CC BY 4.0), based on the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO), using ISCO-08 major group classifications. The SINSO Population and Housing Census and Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) provide the occupational distribution used in this analysis. Total covered workforce: 363k workers. Solomon Islands is a lower-middle income country with a GDP per capita of approximately $2,500 (World Bank estimate) and an economy heavily dependent on log exports (primarily to China), agriculture, and fishing licence revenue.

Solomon Islands has one of the most dispersed populations in the Pacific - 720,000 people spread across 992 islands, with Guadalcanal (where Honiara sits) and Malaita together accounting for roughly half the population. This geography fragments economic activity and makes it difficult to build formal employment at scale outside Honiara. The 11.3k elementary workers (3.1%) represent construction labourers on government infrastructure projects (partially funded by Australia and New Zealand aid), port workers at Honiara Port, and domestic workers in Honiara's growing residential areas.

The service sector at 21.9% (79k workers) reflects the growing importance of Honiara as a Pacific regional hub for certain services, as well as the growth in domestic commerce stimulated by the natural resource revenues. Tuna fishing - the Soltuna and Tri Marine canneries in Noro, Western Province - generates significant processing employment, blurring the line between fishing (agricultural) and manufacturing (service) classification in the ISCO data.

The most AI-exposed jobs in Solomon Islands

Clerical support workers score 8.5/10 in Solomon Islands, covering 4.5k workers at 1.2% of employment. In Honiara, this group includes administrative staff at the Ministry of Finance and Treasury on Mendana Avenue, personnel at the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI), and administrative support at BSP Solomon Islands, ANZ, and Bank South Pacific branches. The major logging companies - Tropical Logging, Soltuna - maintain Honiara administrative offices as well. Document processing and records management in these organisations are the primary AI-exposure functions globally.

Professionals at 6.5/10 (32k workers, 8.9%) include educators across the Solomon Islands National University (SINU), established in 2013 through the merger of Honiara-based colleges; secondary school teachers at King George VI Secondary School, St. Joseph's Secondary, and provincial schools; and medical professionals at the National Referral Hospital. Engineers and project managers working on the Pacific-Australia Cable (PICN) and the Tina River Hydropower Project - Solomon Islands' largest ever infrastructure investment - also fall in this category.

Technicians and associate professionals score 5.5/10 (14k workers, 3.9%). Allied health technicians at NRH and provincial hospitals, laboratory technicians at the Public Health Laboratory in Honiara, and ICT technicians supporting the government's digital public infrastructure development form this group. The 3.9% technician share reflects a developing-economy structure where professional staff take on technical functions that in higher-income countries would be differentiated.

The safest jobs in Solomon Islands

Elementary occupations score 2.0/10 (11k workers, 3.1%). Construction labourers on the Tina River Hydropower Project (a 15-megawatt dam on Guadalcanal that will double Solomon Islands' electricity capacity), road construction workers on ADB-funded rural access programmes, and port workers at Honiara Port Authority form this group. The relatively small elementary share - 3.1% - reflects that many subsistence activities are classified as agricultural rather than elementary in ISCO-08.

Craft and related trades workers score 2.5/10 (25k workers, 6.9%). Traditional boatbuilders and repairers serving the inter-island shipping network - essential in an archipelago with 992 islands and limited road infrastructure - carpenters and builders constructing homes in Honiara's expanding suburbs (White River, Kukum), and auto mechanics servicing the growing vehicle fleet along the weather coast of Guadalcanal all fall in this group.

Skilled agricultural workers at 3.0/10 (174k workers, 47.9%) form the dominant occupation in Solomon Islands. Subsistence gardeners on Malaita's inland ridges and Guadalcanal's Weather Coast, cocoa smallholders in Western Province, copra producers across the Shortland Islands and Malaita, and artisanal fishers using traditional canoes in the Marovo Lagoon (a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate) all fall here. See the Papua New Guinea AI jobs analysis and the Vanuatu AI jobs analysis for Melanesian regional comparison.

What this means for Solomon Islands workers

Solomon Islands' 4.44/10 average means the national workforce is in a moderate AI risk position, with the 174k agricultural workers providing a large low-risk base. The formal economy in Honiara - government ministries, commercial banks, the shipping and logistics sector - operates at a significantly higher AI exposure level than the national average implies. The 4.5k clerical workers in Honiara offices face genuine medium-term AI risk as document automation tools become accessible through mobile internet connectivity.

For the 32k professionals, AI augmentation tools in education and healthcare will enter Solomon Islands through regional health system programmes (WHO Western Pacific) and international teacher training partnerships with Australia and New Zealand. The timeline is 5-10 years for meaningful penetration. The Tina River Hydropower Project, once operational, will expand the electricity grid and accelerate affordable internet access - the primary enabler for AI tool adoption in Honiara and beyond.

The 174k agricultural workers and 11k elementary workers face negligible near-term AI risk. Subsistence farming and inter-island fishing in the Solomon Islands' scattered archipelago are inherently physical, place-specific, and culturally embedded activities that current AI cannot automate. Workers in Honiara who develop digital skills alongside professional qualifications have the most resilient career trajectories in a country where formal sector growth is constrained by geography and infrastructure.