Engineering companies, turnovers soar (+11%) in 2024

The 2024 turnover of engineering and architecture companies grows by 11.3%, to 4.4 billion. And for 2025, further growth is estimated at around 4.8 billion (+9.1%). abroad accounts for 26% of production. Even if the difficulty in finding new personnel weighs heavily. These are the key data of the 41st survey on the performance of the sector ofengineering and architecture companies, drawn up by Oice, the association of engineering and architecture companies of Confindustria and Centro europa ricerche.

This year's report confirms, also improving on the forecasts of the previous report, how 2024 was also a very positive year for the engineering and architecture companies belonging to the confederation of industry associations. It should be noted, however, that in the previous year's survey, the growth rate of 2023 over 2022 had been almost double (around 25%). Thus, there remains some signs of caution.

An increase of 9.1% is expected for the current year, which is still lower than the growth rate of 2024. For 53.8% of the companies surveyed in the start of 2025, business activities and opportunities have improved compared to 2024. The increase in production levels affects the growth of employment, which is expected to exceed 37,000 in 2025 (it was 34,700 in 2024, compared to an estimate of 33,000 made last year).

The proportion of companies declined compared to last year (from 60.6% to 50%), stating that they intended to increase their personnel during the year. And the difficulty in recruiting new staff, reported by 76.7% of those interviewed, with a peak of around 80% for companies with between 26 and 125 employees, should be emphasised.

The presence of women in companies is increasing, from just under 31.0% in 2023 to almost 36% in 2025. The presence of women, however, is broadly uniform from 2024, with shares ranging from 35.2% in large companies to 36.5% in medium-sized ones.