Job satisfaction and desire for career change in Italy: data and concerns

The desire to change varies based on the degree of satisfaction of the interviewees. 28% imagine a constantly evolving professional path. 15% plan to completely change sector at least once in their life. And 9% plan to change sectors entirely several times. Over four in 10 respondents (43%) say they have an ideal career that they would like to achieve.

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However, there is also a fear of change: age (31% of the sample) is often the biggest obstacle, followed by the prospect of having to start over from scratch (28%) and the fear of failure (18%). Financial uncertainty (26%) and family responsibilities (19%) also weigh heavily. Over half of those interviewed (52%) say they have skills that can be used in the world of work but do not know in which contexts they can exploit them, while 64% would like to understand which roles their profile might be suitable for. 21% don't know who to turn to for advice and 36% find only general advice.

We must also consider that navigating the job market is complex. 64% would like to be able to ask questions about a role or company before applying, while one in three people (30%) have had difficulty explaining their suitability for a given role during an interview.

Over half of those interviewed (55%) - a share which then rises to 69% among young people aged 25 to 34 - say that better understanding the different career paths would give the right injection of confidence to make the leap. Furthermore, 68% of Italian workers who responded to the survey would welcome a tool capable of suggesting new professional trajectories based on their own skills and experience.

However, it should be kept in mind that the study still fits into a more general framework: in Italy for every unemployed adult there are almost four young unemployed people. This is confirmed by the global report by the International Labor Organization-ILO, which analyzed youth employment trends. According to the study, in our country there is a disadvantage for girls and boys despite the improvement in access to employment. According to the report, unemployment and especially the incidence of NEETs have "significantly decreased", "almost halved in the space of a decade, going from 25.7% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2025": this is the "largest reduction among all EU countries". Despite these data, however, Italy continues to "record less favorable results than the EU average".

According to the ILO report, between 2014 and 2023, 367 thousand Italians aged between 25 and 34 emigrated. Among these, almost 146 thousand (39.7%) were graduates. The returns of young graduates were just over 49 thousand during the same period, leading to a net loss of around 97 thousand qualified young people.

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Work, almost 4 unemployed young people for every unemployed adult in Italy: Ilo data