2024 will open with good prospects for employment which will grow especially in some sectors such as energy, commerce, IT and transport. While positive signals are arriving from entrepreneurs and managers for the first three months of next year, difficulties in finding the right profiles continue: as many as 75% of companies struggle to find those they are looking for.
Positive prospects, but declining
This is the picture that emerges from the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey (Meos) on employment prospects, which despite being less optimistic than in the past, still remain in positive territory, according to Italian employers. The expectation is for an increase in hiring, with a Net Employment Outlook (NEO – employment forecast) of +13%. If the data is confirmed, the first quarter of 2024 would be the thirteenth in a row with positive expectations. However, if we make a comparison with the last quarter of 2023, a drop of 6 percentage points emerges. In the year-on-year comparison, growth of +3% emerges compared to the first quarter of 2023.
The leading sectors
In the first months of the year, the energy sector confirms itself as the one with the best hiring forecasts: +28%, the best among all economic sectors. Trade and services (+23%), information technology (+21%) and transport (+21%) also follow with good prospects. Positive prospects also for industry (+13%), communications (+12%), finance and real estate (+9%). The only sector that shows a decline in expectations is healthcare and life sciences, which marks -11%, confirming itself as the one with the best expectations (+28%), followed by trade, IT and transport.
Territorial differences
The North-East starts the year with excellent prospects for new hires. In all four Italian macro-areas, entrepreneurs expect to increase their workforce during the first quarter of 2024. Those in the North-East are decidedly positive, with a Net Employment Outlook of +33%. The prospects of employers in central Italy are also good, with +14% ahead of their counterparts in the North-West (+10%). For Southern Italy and the Islands the forecasts also show a positive +8%.
The difficulty in finding talent
«Our research, despite noting less optimistic forecasts compared to the last quarter, highlights that Italian employers who expect an increase in the number of people in their workforce for the first quarter of the new year are significantly higher than those who expect a decrease . It is a positive sign, moreover improving when compared with the beginning of 2023″, comments Anna Gionfriddo, managing director of ManpowerGroup Italia. If the forecasts are encouraging, however, the lack of talent with the skills companies are looking for is not, which continues to be reported by three out of four companies. Going into the merits of skills, one in four states that it is difficult to find the right IT skills (25%) and for almost one in five there are problems with the skills required in the production departments (19%). This is followed by engineering (17%), administrative (16%) and logistics (16%) skills. Precisely for these reasons, companies are evaluating how not to lose existing talent and how to attract new ones. 45% think of offering greater flexibility on place and working hours, 22% consider increasing salaries, 20% think of looking for possible candidates among more “senior” workers. Almost one company in five (19%) believes it is advantageous to keep workers on staff who are not needed at the moment, in order to have them available in the future.
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