Italy: One in three firms to hire non-EU workers by 2026

Rome: The shortage of Italian workers will lead one in three companies to hire non-EU personnel by 2026, according to a new survey carried out by the Union of Chambers of Commerce Unioncamere and by the Tagliacarne research center.

One in three businesses in Italy is set to hire non-EU workers by 2026 or already did so between 2021 and 2023, according to a recent survey conducted by the Union of Chambers of Commerce Unioncamere and by the Tagliacarne research center, based on a sample of 4,500 manufacturing and service companies that employ between 5 and 499 people.

According to the poll, 73.5 percent of the entrepreneurs polled said they would hire non-EU citizens, mainly due to a shortage of Italian workers.

In addition, 68.7 percent of businessmen said they were willing to invest in training foreign personnel by 2026, compared to 54.5 percent of respondents who were not planning to hire non-EU workers, the study found.

The president of Unioncamere, Andrea Prete, said “Italy is starting to feel the demographic impact of the population’s aging. Immigrant workers are thus an increasingly indispensable resource to respond to the demand for labor in companies,” he noted.

In addition, Prete said that “our country should also keep an eye on second and third-generation Italians who mainly live in South America,” in particular referring to potential young workers who have “solid experience”, are fluent in Italian and have a “family history” connecting them to the country and “might be interested” in moving to Italy.

According to the poll, 47.1 percent of companies plan to hire specialized workers from outside the European Union by 2026 or already hired them between 2021 and 2023, while 32.6 percent will hire or already employ unskilled workers, 13.3 percent workers in the service sector, 11.1 percent craftsmen, 9.3 percent specialized technicians, 4.9 percent highly qualified professionals and 1.1 percent managers.

After the difficulty in finding Italian workers, other causes listed in the survey by entrepreneurs who hired or were planning to employ foreigners included the shortage of young workers due to the population’s aging (12.6 percent), the better technical skills offered by foreign workers (9.4 percent) and, only marginally, the lower cost of labor (3 percent).

Nearly four in 10 companies hiring non-EU workers were high tech, the poll said. A reported 37.2 percent of industries planned to hire foreigners by 2026 or had already employed them between 2021 and 2023, compared to 27.4 percent in the service sector.

The survey also highlighted that companies in northeastern Italy (which is one of the most highly industrialized areas of the country) were particularly likely to hire foreign workers: a reported 36.5 percent of businesses in the Triveneto area (including the regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige) expected to employ non-EU workers by 2026 or had already done so between 2021 and 2023 compared to 31.8 percent of the total of Italian businesses, the poll found.

At the top of the chart were companies from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (39.1 percent), followed by Veneto (37.6 percent) and Friuli-Venezia (36.8 percent).

On the opposite front, demand was lower in the South: only 28.6 percent of southern Italian companies planned to hire non-European workers or had hired them, the survey found.