Jobs, growth driven by digital and automation in 2026

The Italian labour market this year will be driven by a more selective and qualitative approach on the part of companies, with highly specialised figures whose demand is growing at unprecedented rates. One example is industrial plant technicians, for whom Adecco will register a growth of over 1,300% by the end of 2025. Another is cyber security specialists with +790% and yet another is machine learning specialists with +625%. Automation and digital are driving demand in all sectors, but if we had to single out those that are moving at a faster pace, they are certainly logistics, healthcare and all shipbuilding, at least in the first part of the year, thanks to the Pnrr projects.

Looking at the numbers at the tail end of 2025, a favourable wind has been blowing for many months now, as even the most recent Istat data (October 2025) tell us: the employment rate is at 62.7%, at a level that Italy has perhaps never known, and total employment has risen above 24 million. However, much remains to be done to resolve the issue of low wages, especially for those living in city centres, where both the cost of living and housing have reached prohibitive levels. The CEOs of the main employment agencies operating in Italy, which are one of the most important observers to assess the market, speak of positive forecasts for 2026, at least for the first part, although not comparable to the pace of 2023 and 2024. If 2025 'proved to be a year of resilience and consolidation, in which we saw overall employment holding up, the outlook for 2026 is for more selective and qualitative growth', explains Marco Ceresa, group ceo of Randstad Italia. The geopolitical crisis is causing some concern, but the impact will at most "moderate the rate of growth, not stop the transformation underway, such as the acceleration of the digital transition, with the enhancement of skills related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analysis that are among the most in demand, and the greater demand for profiles with experience and established soft skills, compared to juniors, but with a need for strong digital upskilling to align with new business needs. In 2026, the demand will be more demanding, focused on bringing in high value-added professionals to fill specific skills gaps."

Also for Massimiliano Medri, Managing Director of Adecco Italy, '2026 promises to be a year of strong dynamism for the Italian labour market. We observe a growing demand on strategic fronts and a supply that is gradually readjusting. Our data indicate that domestic demand is mainly driven by trade, transport and hospitality, with manufacturing and food consolidating the second line. What we expect is a year of polarisation: on the one hand the traditional sectors that continue to generate significant volumes, on the other the growing centrality of digital and technological skills. The most significant opportunities will open up for companies and candidates who know how to invest in advanced technical skills and transversal soft skills such as adaptability and problem solving'.

Between 2025 and 2029, the Italian labour market will express an employment need of between 3.3 and 3.7 million workers, thanks to activities still linked to the NRP and to generational turnover, according to Unioncamere's Excelsior forecasts, based on companies' forecasts. The peaks of demand concern healthcare professions, engineers, and technicians in mechanical and information technology. In general, there is a strong need for digital and green skills, starting with logistics and construction. However, it will not be easy for companies to find the profiles they need. For Zoltan Daghero, managing director of Gi group, the greatest criticality lies in the mismatch between supply and demand, which 'now concerns one out of every two profiles and seems to have become structural. Social dynamics even seem to exacerbate it with 'the progressive demographic decline, the school-work mismatch, technological transformations and more cultural and social issues'. This leads to the conclusion that 'for 2026, a fundamental lever remains training,' says Daghero. 'Paths such as academy, Its and Ifts allow us to develop, even in a short time, the most in-demand skills, with high effectiveness in terms of employability. Our Gi group training hub in 2025 delivered 11 thousand courses and trained 54 thousand people throughout Italy'. Logistics, life sciences, energy and ICT are the sectors from which the strongest demand is coming "with growing demands related to digitalisation, supply chain security and sustainability," continues Daghero. Thus in logistics, the forklift driver and crane operator can no longer be generic, but must have a clear specialisation due to the digitisation of warehouses. Similarly in the life sciences, "among the most in-demand roles are industrial maintenance technicians for the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors, for which we have had to develop training courses in collaboration with companies in the sector to align their skills," adds Daghero.

Energy will certainly open up great prospects, especially for the EU's target of 42.5 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2030, which Confindustria Energia forecasts could generate at least 250,000 new jobs. Giuseppe Venier, Umana's managing director, maintains that with the first months of 2026 'the situation of uncertainty that characterised the market in 2025, in which companies resorted heavily to redundancy funds, will come to an end. We expect growth in the administration sector to be around 5 per cent, after a two-year period that was not particularly exciting, the result of a normalisation of the market, in which we witnessed a vertiginous growth in the post-Cvid period. The role of agencies will be central, the positive signals coming in are comforting. Starting with the recovery of fixed-term contracts, which is experiencing a considerable growth phase, a dynamic that will soon extend to permanent contracts as well'. The sectors that will be most affected are 'those with the highest concentration of high technology such as aerospace and technical figures, especially in IT, which continue to be the most sought after. However, for some time now we have been recording the demand by companies for humanistic skills, which are becoming increasingly important precisely in sectors with a technical vocation'.