Talent scarcity continues to intensify across Asia Pacific and the Middle East (APME), underscoring a critical inflection point for employers and economies alike, with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) cited as a major factor.
According to ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 71 percent of employers in APME report difficulty filling open roles — nearly on par with the global average of 72 percent.
“The rise of AI has fundamentally reshaped both the skills landscape and the hiring process in APME. Today, AI skills are no longer niche capabilities—they are foundational to workforce competitiveness across the region. As organizations accelerate adoption, leaders must operate across multiple horizons simultaneously,” said François Lancon, Regional President, Asia Pacific & Middle East, ManpowerGroup.
The study, surveying more than 39,000 employers across 41 countries, including 12,193 across 10 APME markets, shows hiring challenges vary by market. In APME, Japan (84 percent) and India (82 percent) experience the most severe constraints, while the United Arab Emirates stands at 76 percent, and China (48 percent) is the least affected regionally and globally. At the global level, Slovakia (87 percent), Greece (84 percent) and Japan report the highest shortage, while Finland (60 percent) and Poland (57 percent) face the lowest shortage, alongside China.
Even as the degree of shortage differs by market, AI skills consistently rank among the hardest to find in APME, led by AI Model & Application Development (27 percent) and AI Literacy (26 percent), while traditional IT & Data skills place sixth (18 percent).
They need to support workers through rapid transformation in the now, ensuring they can adapt confidently to AI-driven change. While also preparing for the next by building deeper, future-ready AI capabilities that their organizations will rely on in the years ahead. At the same time, the hiring process is changing at an accelerated pace and they now need to build, buy or borrow the skills to recruit ‘AI enhanced candidates’,” Lancon said.
ManpowerGroup, listed at the NYSE, is a leading global workforce solutions company helping organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing, and managing the talent that enables them to win. The company’s expert family of brands – Manpower, Experis, and Talent Solutions – creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across more than 70 countries and territories and has done so for more than 75 years.
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