Unioncamere appeal: the return of young brain drain is worth 12 billion
'The ageing of the workforce in Italia,' reads a Unioncamere note, 'is not just a demographic emergency, but a brake on competitiveness, productivity and the digital and sustainable transition of enterprises, as emerges from the latest analyses by Unioncamere and its Tagliacarne Study Centre based on original elaborations and institutional sources.
According to Unioncamere's estimates, companies capable of attracting and retaining talent under 35 - the note goes on to say - score a +7.2% increase in productivity and, ISTAT shows, "companies with more young people run faster than the others, registering a growth in turnover and employment that is 1.5 percentage points higher". The propensity to innovate in terms of process grows up to an average age of 36, and the propensity to innovate in terms of product innovation up to an average age of 42, and then falls sharply: "Given the current composition of the workforce, the result is that 60% of Italian companies have already exceeded the age threshold beyond which the drive to innovate falls (Istat)".
And here is the recipe of the Chambers of Commerce: putting in place actions capable of reversing the march, making, for example, half of the young expats return to Italia, would produce an enormous benefit, estimated at 12 billion euros, equal to half a point of GDP. "The new generations live with fewer cultural, territorial, and social barriers than in the past," says Unioncamere president Andrea Prete. Thanks to initiatives such as Erasmus, they naturally feel like European citizens. Europe is a concrete space for study, work, opportunities. They compare wages, quality of work, access to innovation and possibilities for growth. It is a profound cultural change, which speaks of a new idea of life, family and personal fulfilment. Enhancing their creativity and capacity for innovation requires a joint effort. The Chambers of Commerce are in the field and ready to act as a bridge between companies and the training system'. Tens of thousands of young Italians have been forced to move outside Europe, attracted by jobs that pay much better than in Italia and by exceptional opportunities for personal and professional growth (just think of the many Italian tech graduates in America's Silicon Valley - a start-up paradise - , in finance in Great Britain or in industry and banking in Japan).
Meanwhile, recalls the Unioncamere analysis, over the last twenty years in Italia, the number of employed people over 50 has doubled (from 20% to about 40%), while the share of those under 35 has fallen from 35% to less than 25% (Cnel).
And yet, young people are the real engine of transformation, the Chambers of Commerce clearly remind us. As the Excelsior Information System, by Unioncamere and the Ministry of Labour, shows, companies annually allocate around 28% of the contracts they have budgeted to make to the under-30s. But last year, 48% of these positions were considered difficult to fill, mostly (31%) due to a lack of candidates. I would also add that young people often come across cumbersome and convoluted recruiting processes, sometimes humiliating for budding brains.
