Stories
IMF Report Reveals AI Cuts Hiring Demand by Nearly 10 Percent Across Asia
- •Hiring demand in AI-exposed occupations across Asia dropped by nearly 10 percent relative to less-exposed roles, according to an IMF report analysing 40 million job postings.
- •The decline in labour demand has stabilised despite rapid improvements in AI capabilities that now allow systems to handle complex tasks.
- •Employers are increasingly seeking workers with specific AI skills such as prompt engineering, RAG, and building AI agents, though this new demand has not fully offset the recruitment reduction.
- •The report warns that AI could complicate efforts for young-population economies like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines to transition workers into higher-productivity manufacturing and services jobs.
Key Questions Answered
According to an IMF report analyzing 40 million online job postings across 19 Asian economies, hiring demand in occupations more exposed to artificial intelligence has fallen by nearly 10% relative to less-exposed roles. However, this decline has stabilized even as AI capabilities have continued to improve.
Employers are increasingly searching for workers skilled in prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and building AI agents. About 6% of firms in Asia now request AI skills in their job listings, and firms seeking these skills are experiencing faster worker demand growth.
The IMF report noted that in countries like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, large young populations create a strong need for job creation. While agricultural workers are less exposed, AI could make it more difficult for these developing economies to transition workers into higher-productivity manufacturing and services jobs.
