Drivers, carpenters, excavators: the most sought-after jobs but nobody wants to do them

The untraceable workers in our labour market are multiplying among the technical and practical professions, where a mismatch between supply and demand lurks and grows that looks set to become increasingly critical in the future. Foremen, excavation workers, site managers, and even machinists are among the untraceable precisely at the time of our country's major infrastructure challenges.

The litmus test arrives by cross-referencing data from the Distretto Italia study centre and Skuola.net. The first observatory estimates that currently 3 out of 4 job offers concern technical fields: the figure emerges in the context of a project of the Elis Consortium, promoted by the chairmanship of Autostrade per l'Italia, in which 56 entities, including large companies operating in Italy, employment agencies and other bodies, participate, with the common objective of reducing the mismatch between work and youth. The second observatory, Skuola.net's study centre, on the other hand, explains that half of young people seem to be no longer attracted by manual trades and discard a priori the hypothesis of working in technical or manual professions, turning first to high school and then to academic studies with specialisations far removed from those of the sectors from which the demand for technical figures comes. It is also for this reason that the gap between labour demand and supply is widening and that the 'Schools of Trades' of Distretto Italia were born. Their mission is to organise courses that enable companies to train the workers of tomorrow, especially in those sectors where labour shortages are no longer sustainable.

The sectors suffering the most are transport, construction, mechanics, electronics, mechatronics, information technology, retail and telecommunications. "The great infrastructural challenges facing the country today call for adequate resources and skills," says Autostrade per l'Italia CEO Roberto Tomasi. "Professional figures are increasingly difficult to find on the labour market, professions that large infrastructure companies need. Not only professions linked to the past, but also closely related to the arrival of new technologies'.

At the top of the top ten untraceable professions is the public transport driver: despite the advances in autonomous driving, driving public transport is still a profession that demands people, but those who drive buses, trams, metros are now very hard to find. Investment in major works will involve road construction, which is not possible without the figure of the carpenter, a highly specialised trade in the construction world that requires interpreting technical drawings, using specialised equipment, making scaffolding, working with metal elements.

Then there is the railway layout technician who is in charge of the development and maintenance of tracks and the like, as well as the earth mover who belong to the imagination and childhood games of many children and can represent a solid opportunity, since there is a shortage of qualified personnel capable of manoeuvring them on construction sites, moving the ground within them, and taking care of their routine maintenance.