Altagamma's appeal: the luxury industry needs 276,000 people by 2028
Business needs are growing, from fashion to design, via automotive, food and hospitality, generating 7.4% of GDP. But for 50% there will be difficulties in finding resources
3' min read
3' min read
It is a crucial industry for Italy: its turnover is 144 billion euros, it employs 2 million people (equal to 8.2% of Italian employment), exports 50% of its production, spreading the soft power of 'beautiful and well-made' around the world, and generates 7.4% of the national GDP. Yet, Italian luxury companies struggle to find the human resources they need, estimated at 276,000 by 2028.
This is the opinion of the Altagamma Foundation, which brings together 120 companies in the production sectors of excellence, and which presented the updated results of its survey on the need for workers at its annual assembly in Rome: a figure slightly down on the 346,000 estimated in 2022, but justified by the 'normalisation' of production after the boom immediately following the pandemic, but higher than the 236,000 in 2019 pre-Covid.
The sector that will have the most room for recruitment is automotive (80 thousand), followed by fashion (75 thousand), food (60 thousand), hospitality (32 thousand) and design (29 thousand), thus supporting the quota of 2.2 million total workers in 2028. In 2023, the sectors reporting the greatest difficulties were design (57%) and motors (55.9%), followed by hospitality (47.7%), fashion (47.5%) and food (38.9%). And this in the face of youth unemployment which, according to ISTAT, reached 20.1% in April. "The training of new talents must be the priority for the entire Italian manufacturing sector," emphasised Matteo Lunelli, president of Altagamma, "a heritage of entrepreneurial culture, craftsmanship and technological know-how, beauty and Italianness that we want to preserve. The common goal of companies, associations and institutions must be to build a virtuous ecosystem in which manufacturing work becomes an ambition for young people and in which the training system is able to ensure the right skills and soft skills'.
Institutions who were present with the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, who recalled the measures contained in the framework law on Made in Italy precisely in support of industry, from the launch of the Made in Italy Day and high school ("we did it in record time, for the year 2024-25 it will be a pilot project that we count on strengthening with the next one," he said) to the intensification of the fight against counterfeiting to the incentives contained in the Transition Plan 5.0.
Beyond the necessary support for companies in the sector, however, it is necessary to make people aware of the beauty and potential of professional paths hitherto considered second class compared to university training, starting with raising awareness among families, involving children in making them visit the factories: "It happens in Switzerland, where the State establishes and balances access to university and technical study paths, with much attention paid to standardising salary levels as well, to make both attractive," emphasised Jean-Christophe Babin, ad of Bulgari, who also recalled how in the next five years the maison's factories, between Valenza and Rome, will employ another 1,300 people. Although 40% of the member companies already have their own in-house academy, in 2020 Altagamma for its part launched the 'Adopt a school' project to encourage the meeting between young talent and the demands of companies, which has involved 33 brands (but is counting on reaching at least 50) and 39 Italian schools, although it is being considered to extend it to institutes abroad.
