IMF Report Shows Asia's Hiring for AI-Exposed Jobs Drops Nearly Ten Percent

Employer demand for workers in jobs exposed to artificial intelligence has dropped by nearly 10 percent across Asia since the launch of ChatGPT. The International Monetary Fund revealed this finding in its October 2026 Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and Pacific. The report studied 40 million online job postings across 19 economies up to April 2026.

Job Shifts

The IMF compared jobs where AI is useful, such as coding, with less-exposed roles like managing supplier relationships. Hiring trends for both groups moved together before ChatGPT launched. Demand stayed steady until mid-2023, then slowed down through 2024 and 2025.

New Skills

While hiring fell in exposed areas, demand grew for workers who know emerging AI skills like prompt engineering and building AI agents. About 6 percent of firms in Asia ask for these skills in job postings. These AI-adopting firms are growing faster than companies that do not seek such skills.

Context

The International Monetary Fund regularly publishes economic reports and outlooks to track regional financial trends and labor market shifts. This specific data helps policymakers understand how new technologies change employment patterns across different countries and industries.