Labour: Istat, higher percentages of smart workers among graduates

Remote working is directly proportional to the level of education. According to ISTAT in its statistics on the subject, a high educational qualification corresponds to a greater use of smart working: a higher level of education is in fact more prevalent among goal-oriented work activities associated with greater digital literacy and organisational autonomy. Compared to an average of 13.8%, the share of employees with a high educational qualification who worked remotely at least a few days in the four weeks prior to the Census reference date of 2023 is 29%.

Among those with no more than a secondary school diploma, only 3.3% have experienced some form of flexible work, a percentage that rises to 10.9% for those with a secondary school diploma. In Lombardy and Lazio, graduates who work remotely come close to the 40% threshold (39.4% and 38.4% respectively), while in Sicily (18.4%), Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste (19.0%) and Calabria (19.4%) smart workers are below 20%. In the metropolitan city of Milan more than half of those employed with a first or second level tertiary qualification carry out part of their activity outside their place of work, 42% in the metropolitan city of Rome.

Overall, there are 16 provinces in which the percentage of remote employees with a high level of education is above the national figure (29.0%). The remaining 91 have below-average incidences, with the lowest values found in the provinces of Enna (10.8%) and Foggia (15.2%). In the 27 municipalities with a population density of 150,000 inhabitants or more, the percentage of smart workers with a university degree is 38.8% (Figure 10); in the rest of the Italian municipalities it does not go beyond 24.8%.

Large urban realities, therefore, represent a driving force for remote work with Milan and Rome still leading the ranking: out of 100 highly educated employees, 56 in the Lombard capital work remotely, 45 in the capital and 41 in Bologna and Turin. By contrast, in the provinces of Messina and Catania less than one in five university-educated employees opt for agile work (16.7% and 17.7% respectively).