The loss of human capital

Mobility is a response to differences in opportunities, but it can become a collective cost when it drains human capital from regions that need it most. Between 2014 and 2023, 367,000 Italians aged between 25 and 34 emigrated. Of these, almost 146,000 – or 39.7 per cent – were university graduates. Just over 49,000 young graduates returned to Italy during the same period, resulting in a net loss of around 97,000 qualified young people. Young foreign nationals residing in Italia tend to enter the labour market earlier than their Italian peers, but this higher participation does not necessarily translate into faster transitions to stable, high-quality employment. The ILO’s analysis of the labour market transition of young foreign nationals, based on microdata from labour force surveys covering various years up to 2019, found that the labour force participation rate among young foreign nationals was approximately 11 percentage points higher than that of young Italians. The most recent data confirm this higher presence in the labour market among the youngest age groups. In 2024, foreign 15–24-year-olds had relatively higher employment rates than Italians born in Italy.