Professionals, alarm over fallout from US tariffs

Freelance professionals will have to deal with the consequences of the US tariffs. This is what emerges from the study "Le libere professioni alla prova dei tariffs" carried out by the Observatory of the Liberal Professions in cooperation with Confprofessioni, Gestione Professionisti and Beprof.

By means of a special US Tariffs Vulnerability Index, the study measured the indirect exposure of Italian liberal professions to a possibletrade shock, based on the share of turnover generated by companies operating in the sectors most exposed to exports to the US.

Index values above 100 indicate a relative vulnerability above the sample average, while values below 100 indicate a lower relative exposure; there were nine occupational categories analysed.

Among the most at-risk categories are economic-financial professions - which include business consultants, marketing and communication consultants, finance and insurance experts, auditors and other figures such as commercial agents - (index 201.5); employment consultants (197.5), engineers (193.8) and technical-specialist professions (162.1), figures closely linked to export-oriented production chains. The commercialists are in the middle of the ranking (index 94.9), also due to a strong internal heterogeneity in terms of turnover and geographical area. Less vulnerable, with indices below 100, are lawyers, notaries, architects, surveyors, cultural professionals, archaeologists, medics and dentists.

At a territorial level, the geographical area with the highest exposure is the North East (index 138.4) followed by the North West (114.6); the Centre and the South have lower levels (58.3 and 73.0). Looking in more detail in the North-East the most exposed professions are the economic-financial professions (300.3), the technical-specialist professions (192.1) and accountants (163.2); in the North-West the economic-financial professions (230.3), labour consultants (293.7) and engineers (147.5). In Central Italy, the overall index is more contained, but engineers (385.1) and technical-specialist professions (114.4) are among the most affected. Even in the South, despite an overall index of just over 70, there are selective peaks of vulnerability among the economic-financial professions (207.1), labour consultants (176.9) and lawyers and notaries (166.3).