European countries dominated the IMD Global Talent Ranking 2024.
Didier Marti | Moment | Getty Images
For the eleventh consecutive year, Switzerland topped the list as the most competitive country for talent in the world, according to the IMD Global Talent Ranking 2024signaling its strong and stable talent pool despite the rapidly changing global job landscape.
The ranking measures how economies around the world are performing in retaining their talent pool. This year, the list was developed through a combination of survey responses and hard data from the IMD Global Competitiveness Center and external sources in 67 economies worldwide.
This data is broken down into three buckets: investment and development of domestic talent, attractiveness (the extent to which a country taps into its talent pool abroad), and readiness (availability of skills and abilities in the talent pool), according to report.
These are the 10 most competitive economies for talent worldwide:
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- Luxembourg
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Hong Kong
- Austria
European countries dominated this year’s ranking, occupying eight of the top ten positions. Two economies in Asia also made the list with Singapore and Hong Kong taking second and ninth place, respectively.
The United States, however, did not make the top 10 and fell six places to 21st this year. Notably, the US also fell from second place in 2020 to 14th place in 2024 in the appeals category, affected by the country’s cost of living and the personal income tax rate collected.
The US also fell in the preparedness category to 32nd this year. The country was rated below average for language skills, or the availability of language skills to meet the needs of business, coming in at 47 out of 67 economies worldwide.
Switzerland remains at the forefront of talent competitiveness, topping the list since the ranking began in 2014. The country dominates in investment and growth, as well as the impact factor.
The European country tops the list in many criteria such as quality of life, health infrastructure, university education, the existence of a statutory minimum wage, the ability to attract highly skilled foreign personnel and more.
Singapore is also a standout winner on this year’s list. The city-state’s “rise from 18th place in 2014 to second place this year may pose a challenge to Swiss dominance in the near future,” according to the report.
Singapore’s steady rise is due to the readiness of its talent pool, which is rated No. 1 among the countries in the ranking. The country also has the highest non-discrimination and ranks first in terms of labor force growth, availability of skilled labor and availability of financial skills, according to the report.
While artificial intelligence can bring unparalleled efficiency and productivity, it also threatens widespread job displacement, particularly in sectors dependent on routine tasks and automation.
Jose Caballero
senior economist at the IMD World Competitiveness Center
The impact of artificial intelligence on the global talent landscape
The 2024 WTR report, entitled “The Socio-Economic Impact of AI in the Workplace”, also highlights the impact AI has had on the global talent landscape.
“The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries and reshaping the global economy in unprecedented ways, creating opportunities and challenges for talent competitiveness,” José Caballero, senior economist at the IMD Global Competitiveness Center, wrote in the report.
“While artificial intelligence can bring unparalleled efficiency and productivity, it also threatens widespread job displacement, particularly in sectors that depend on routine tasks and automation,” Caballero said.
Specifically, this year’s report found that in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada, “senior managers see AI as more visible in the workplace in the way that it replaces humans. Additionally, it found that there is discrimination on the rise in these economies,” according to an IMD blog post.
“The integration of artificial intelligence into the workforce may introduce new forms of discrimination, such as discriminatory algorithms, which may reinforce existing inequalities and have broader social impacts on marginalized communities,” Caballero said in the report.
For example, the report found that women’s employment is more than twice as likely to be affected by automation (7.9%) compared to men’s (2.9%) in high-income countries.
Ultimately, while high-income economies are more likely to see disruption and increased discrimination from AI adoption in the short term compared to low-income economies, they “are also expected to reap greater overall benefits,” according to the report.
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