The most sought-after degree programmes: chemical and pharmaceutical sciences, specialising in healthcare and paramedic studies

Young graduates wanted. Although the overall number of people with a university education has been rising sharply in recent years, STEM graduates are becoming increasingly hard to find. This phenomenon goes hand in hand with long periods before graduates from other disciplines – such as the humanities and social sciences – enter the labour market, where the number of graduates far exceeds demand. Moreover, there are regions in Italy where it is extremely difficult to find candidates with a tertiary education qualification.

This is the result of the mismatch between labour supply and demand, analysed in the latest report by the Fondazione Studi Consulenti del Lavoro: ‘The value of university education and the new challenges of the labour market’. Various factors underlie the difficulties faced by companies in recruiting suitable candidates, and by some young people in entering the labour market. The chosen field of study is certainly one of them. Whilst the percentage of companies finding it difficult to recruit graduates at national level has risen from 35.2 per cent in 2019 to 51 per cent in 2025, the figure is not uniform across the board. In fact, the figure reaches 72.8 per cent for roles requiring a degree in chemistry or pharmacy, 70.8 per cent for healthcare and paramedical fields, 65.7 per cent for industrial engineers, and 62.5 per cent for mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists. For other profiles, however, the figures fall well below the average, reaching as low as 37.6 per cent for those in the humanities, philosophy, history and the arts.

In this context, inevitably, graduates for whom demand exceeds supply are bound to face longer pathways to employment. However, the regional dimension also plays a significant role: differences in economic structures, the presence and specialisation of universities, graduate mobility and the ability to offer attractive career opportunities mean that some regions face particular difficulties in meeting the demand for graduates from businesses. According to analyses by the Fondazione Studi Consulenti del Lavoro, the regions expected to face the greatest problems include Valle d’Aosta (where 64.8 per cent of university graduates are difficult to recruit), Trentino-Alto Adige (64.5 per cent) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (60 per cent).