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From manufacturing to healthcare and catering: here are the sectors that have lost workers and those that have gained them

According to Istat, between 2007 and 2024 the manufacturing sector lost 700,000 jobs, but employment in Italia has grown thanks to sectors such as healthcare, social care, catering and professional services

by Pietro Menzani

3 June 2026

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The crisis in industry

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The manufacturing sector is employing fewer and fewer workers. Despite this, as highlighted in the Istat’s annual report, employment in Italia is growing thanks to the gradual rise in the importance of other sectors, from catering to social care.

The study reveals that in recent years the labour market has been undergoing drastic changes that are reshaping the distribution of human capital across different sectors of the economy.

The crisis in industry

According to Istat, 700,000 jobs – more than one in six – have been lost in Italian industry between 2007 and 2024. The same fate appears to have befallen shops and public sector offices: manufacturing, commerce and the public sector have collectively lost 1.35 million workers.

Within the manufacturing sector, the textile and clothing sector has seen the worst performance in terms of employment, with a 40% decline in the workforce between 2007 and 2024. Next – partly due to greater exposure to competition from emerging economies – are the wood, non-metallic mineral products, and rubber and plastic products industries.

As regards the timber industry, compared with 2018, in 2025 the manufacturing production index contracted by 8.6%, whilst for the non-metallic mineral products sector and the rubber and plastic products sector the decline was 8.8 per cent.

The decline in production

The Italian industrial sector is showing worrying signs of decline. From the start of 2022 to the end of 2025 – partly due to the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine – the manufacturing output index has recorded 36 consecutive months of contraction.

If we look at a longer time frame, the situation does not appear any better. According to Istat, Italian manufacturing output fell by 7.4% between 2018 and 2025.

And whilst other major European economies are also showing signs of difficulty (over the same period, Germany saw a fall of 14.3% and France of 3.1%), the average for EU countries, by contrast, shows growth of 2.2%. Poland and Belgium, for example, recorded increases of 32.9% and 21.7% respectively, whilst Spain remained stable, growing by 0.5%.

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Growing sectors

However, job losses in industry were offset by other sectors, which in turn gained almost two million jobs. The sectors most affected by this increase were health and social care, professional, scientific and technical activities, and accommodation and food services.

According to Istat, Italia’s economic structure has changed. A significant proportion of the work has shifted from manufacturing towards labour-intensive services, but with modest or negative productivity growth. In fact, since 2007, productivity in Italia has grown by only 1.4%, whilst, over the same period, double-digit increases were recorded in Germany (+11%) and Spain (+18%).