Manufacturing firms are looking for young STEM graduates (and are struggling to find them in 42 per cent of cases)

From 27 per cent – just over one in four cases – to over 42 per cent, not far off one in two. Only a few years have passed since the last pre-Covid summer, but the Unioncamere-Excelsior surveys on the difficulty of recruiting workers highlight a dramatic shift, leaving little doubt that the problem is getting worse.

Whilst in the past the demand for labour from businesses was structurally lower than the supply, resulting in high unemployment rates, the picture is now different. Without wishing to focus on regions with low unemployment figures in absolute terms, such as Trentino-Alto Adige and Val d’Aosta, in Lombardy the unemployment rate fell to 2.8 per cent in the first quarter, less than half the level seen in the pre-Covid period.  

Population decline and the exodus of young people are creating a new situation in which it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to meet their staffing needs. And this is despite a downward medium-term trend: Istat confirms that between 2007 and 2024, whilst the number of people in employment in Italia rose by 2.4 million, the manufacturing sector shrank by as many as 690,000 jobs (17 per cent), with the main declines concentrated in the textile and clothing sector and, to a lesser extent, in other traditional sectors (woodworking, non-metallic mineral processing, and rubber and plastics products), which are most exposed to competition from emerging economies.

However, the ‘demand’ for staff is growing, and in particular the opportunities for STEM graduates are evident when considering the difficulty in recruiting, which ranges between 55 per cent and 65 per cent for engineers and various technical roles. Although the highest figures, in the region of 70 per cent, are seen for certain specialised factory roles, such as welders, where difficulties in finding the right candidate are evident in seven out of ten cases. “‘For us,’ explains Lombardy-based entrepreneur Miriam Gualini, ‘the search can take as long as 3–4 months, and in any case there are no Italian candidates for welding roles; it’s a trade that’s now carried out exclusively by foreigners. But there are problems elsewhere too: for the past six months we have been searching in vain for two technicians to produce the drawings needed for production.”

Data from Adecco, Italia’s largest temporary employment agency, shows that there are also significant shortages among operational roles: the general metalworking labourer is the most sought-after role in every region, and the fill rates for the profiles sought are in many cases below 50 per cent, including electricians and welders, maintenance technicians and mechanical fitters. Furthermore, according to inJob, the figures rise to 73 per cent for metalworkers. It is no coincidence that some trials of new technologies for humanoid robots – such as those launched by Fincantieri in collaboration with Generative Bionics for welders – are moving precisely in this direction, aiming to fill roles where demand from companies structurally exceeds supply. The same is true at higher levels of education for engineers, as confirmed by the latest survey from the Politecnico di Milano: 99 per cent of Italian master’s graduates are in employment one year after graduation, and 95 per cent find work within six months, whilst almost a third are already in employment by the time they graduate. Although the ‘brain drain’ abroad remains very much a minority phenomenon (88 per cent of Italian students and 70 per cent of international students remain in Italy), the issue of pay is clear: even in the face of a growing shortage of these professionals, the average net salary is actually falling, from €1,944  per month in the previous edition of the survey to the current €1,880. These figures are consistent with the AlmaLaurea national sample, which shows an average of €1,396 across all degree programmes, a slight decrease from the previous year’s figure of €1,410. However, there are varying situations within these averages.