Italy last in the EU for employment of graduates

Italy is at the bottom of the league table for the employment rate of under-34s with a diploma or degree in their pocket. This is stated by the latest statistics released by Eurostat. In 2023, 83.5 % of young people with a diploma or degree in their pocket in the EU were employed, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to 2022 (82.4 %). But our country stopped at 67.5 per cent.

Recent graduates are people between the ages of 20 and 34 who have completed their studies in the last one to three years and have an upper secondary or tertiary education (bachelor's degree, university master's degree...) In Europe, Eurostat notes, there has been an increase in the employment rate of recent graduates over the last 10 years.

In 2013, the rate was 74.3% and has been steadily increasing ever since. The exception was 2020 with the pandemic (78.7%), where a decrease of 2.3 percentage points was observed compared to 2019 (81.0%). In 2023, there was a gap of 9.6 percentage points in the employment rate of those with a tertiary education qualification (87.7%) compared to those with an intermediate education qualification (78.1%).

The overall employment rate of recent graduates was 80% or higher in 22 EU countries. Malta led with 95.8%, followed by the Netherlands (93.2%) and Germany (91.5%). The lowest employment rates were thus recorded in Italy (67.5%) but also in Greece (72.3%) and Romania (74.8%).