AI’s rapid takeover of entry-level tasks is disrupting Hong Kong’s career ladder, leaving fresh graduates with fewer opportunities to gain practical experience, according to experts.
Lam Wai-kong, an employee representative on the Labour Advisory Board, said a growing emphasis on immediate productivity, coupled with a reluctance to invest in graduate training, had also led some employers to bypass local young people in favour of imported workers to fill technical roles.
He warned that this trend could result in a persistent shortage of mid-level local talent.
“One question is whether the ladder for upward mobility will be cut off midway,” Lam said. “The second is the concern about [the breakdown in] the transmission of experience.”
Lam, who is also a lawmaker for the labour sector, added that as the Northern Metropolis developed, incoming mainland Chinese and international technology firms may similarly sideline local graduates unless authorities imposed stricter hiring requirements tied to land allocation and tax incentives.
A third-quarter outlook survey by ManpowerGroup pointed out that the city’s net employment outlook – defined as the difference between the percentage of employers planning to increase staff and those planning to reduce staff – had plunged to minus 9 per cent, reflecting a sharp decrease of 20 percentage points compared with the previous quarter.
