Singapore’s president urges lasting hiring support as AI squeezes graduates’ first jobs

The first job after graduation is becoming a pressure point in AI disruption, Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam warned on October 12. At the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, he urged governments to support graduate hiring permanently—not just during crises—as demand weakens for the work that starts young people’s careers.

When routine work is also a career entry point

Tharman said the decline in demand was clearest in sectors most exposed to AI. His concern was specifically the first rung of employment: the opportunity to enter a profession and begin gaining experience. He singled out technology as the sector where the squeeze was most visible.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva described the mechanism on the same panel. Young workers have traditionally entered through routine, repetitive jobs and then moved up the ranks. If those jobs disappear, she warned, graduates lose the route that once connected an entry-level position to a professional future.

Georgieva put the eventual global reach at about 40% of jobs, which could be augmented, downgraded or eliminated by AI. That estimate covers several different outcomes, including work improved by the technology; it is not a forecast that 40% of jobs will disappear. Her warning about graduates focused on their exposure at the point of entry.

From emergency relief to lasting hiring support

Tharman, who co-chairs the World Bank’s Jobs Council, called for governments to work with private employers and give firms incentives to hire fresh graduates. CNBC reported his proposal to make crisis-era employment support part of the regular policy toolkit. The shift he advocated was from temporary intervention during a shock to continuing support for entering work.

He also argued that displacement would happen task by task, leaving time for workers and institutions to adapt. His response paired access to employment with changes in learning: workers need opportunities to learn on the job, while universities should move toward more applied training.

For Tharman, the cost of leaving a cohort outside employment extends beyond missed skill development. He warned that graduates can also lose trust in the future. That concern explains why his appeal addressed hiring itself, alongside training, rather than treating adaptation solely as a responsibility for individual job seekers.

Lower exposure does not mean an easier transition

The discussion also addressed the divide between economies. Georgieva said about 60% of jobs in advanced economies were exposed to AI, compared with 23% in low-income countries. She cautioned that the lower figure did not mean poorer nations were better off: it reflected AI being further away from their economies.

Tharman warned against a new divergence between developing and advanced economies. He said China, India and developing Southeast Asia were growing well but generating jobs weakly, and that passive policy could allow AI to widen that gap. In his account, economic expansion alone was not enough to ensure employment opportunities.

World Bank President Ajay Banga put the hiring challenge in demographic terms: he estimated that 1.2 billion young people would turn 18 over the next 15 years, with private employers needing to absorb most of them. He identified three ways governments could help make that possible:

• Build infrastructure that supports private-sector activity.
• Set policy that enables investment and job creation.
• Reduce the risks that deter private investors from committing capital at scale.