Bridging Skill Gaps for the Future: New Jobs Creation in the AI Age
Join Marina Mendes Tavares, Senior Economist at the IMF for a seminar discussion surrounding their recent SDN:
Bridging Skill Gaps for the Future: New Jobs Creation in the AI Age
By Florence Jaumotte, Jaden Kim, David Koll, Elmer Z. Li, Longji Li, Giovanni Melina, Alina Song, and Marina M. Tavares
The demand and supply of new skills—especially in IT and AI—are reshaping labor markets, impacting wages and hiring. About 1 in 10 job vacancies in advanced economies demands at least one new skill, often appearing first in the United States. The incidence is about half of that in emerging market economies. These skills boost average wages and employment but deepen polarization, mostly benefitting high- and—through higher consumption of services—low-skilled workers, and potentially contributing to the shrinking of the middle class. Vacancies demanding AI skills post higher wages, but the diffusion of such skills is linked to lower employment in occupations with high exposure and low complementarity to AI, posing challenges for the youth. A Skill Imbalance Index reveals wide cross-country differences. Economies facing strong demand should prioritize education and reskilling, while those facing strong supply should foster firms’ absorption through innovation and access to credit. Link:
Speaker Bio:
Marina M. Tavares is a Senior Economist in the Structural and Climate Policies Division of the International Monetary Fund’s Research Department. Her work sits at the intersection of AI adoption and labor markets, focusing on how countries can capture productivity gains while supporting workers. She led two IMF Staff Discussion Notes—Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work and Bridging Skill Gaps for the Future: New Jobs Creation in the AI Age—and the development of the IMF’s AI Preparedness Index, a cross-country framework to assess readiness for AI adoption. Previously, she led a working group on macroeconomic policy and inequality under the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office–IMF collaboration. Prior to joining the Fund, she was an Assistant Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota.
WHEN: Friday, 27th March April 2026
TIME TBC
WHERE: Cambridge Judge Business School (Room TBC)
Please note that there will be photography at this event.