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WORKING IN ITALY

The jobs in Italy that will be most in demand in 2023

If you’d love to relocate to Italy but are concerned about employment prospects, here are the jobs the country needs to fill according to a study by LinkedIn.

Published: 23 January 2023 14:53 CET
Updated: 29 January 2023 08:37 CET
The jobs in Italy that will be most in demand in 2023
There are job opportunities in Italy if you have the right skills. Photo: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

One of the biggest challenges for people who want to move to Italy is finding a job that will fit with their existing skills sets, or even help further their careers.

Check out the latest jobs in Italy on The Local’s jobs board here.

It’s easier for EU nationals as they enjoy the freedom of movement to easily live and work in Italy, whereas for third-country nationals getting a job here depends in many cases on the prospective employer not finding a suitable EU candidate for the position.

READ ALSO: How to get an Italian work visa

Italy has a poor reputation when it comes to employment opportunities. A relatively high unemployment rate among those aged 25-29 and poor pay for graduates means young Italians continue to leave the country in their thousands every year in search of positions abroad.

But this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find work in Italy – particularly for more experienced candidates and highly-skilled professionals.

In fact some skills are thought to be so much in demand that they could ensure that you get the job as a foreigner, even if your Italian isn’t up to scratch yet, and even if you need a work visa.

So which specialisms are most sought-after in Italy?

International job search engine LinkedIn has published a list of jobs that according to their data are most in demand in Italy in 2023, with bigger growth over the past five years than any other positions advertised.

READ ALSO:

The list features mainly – though not only – tech-related positions, reflecting how the job market is changing.

While many of these jobs may require you to speak Italian, there are some large international companies in Italy, particularly Milan, where it may not be necessary. 

HR, legal and business development specialists may also find opportunities, the data shows.

Here is the list of the top 25 positions available in Italy, including the core skills required for each and the desired amount of experience for candidates according to LinkedIn.

Sales Specialist/Business developer (Addetto allo sviluppo aziendale)

Sales specialists help to improve sales and overall business growth, they are in charge of developing and implementing sales strategy, new client development and the retention of clients or members, among other tasks. 

Required skills: Sales Management, Marketing Strategy, Negotiation

Average years of experience: 2.4

Sustainability consultant (Manager della sostenibilità)

Sustainability consultants are becoming more and more important as the world tries to assess its relationship with the planet and become greener. It’s their job to help businesses become more environmentally responsible. 

Required skills: Sustainable Development, Sustainability Reporting, Consulting

Average years of experience: 3.5

Cybersecurity analyst (SOC analyst or Specialista di sicurezza informatica)

Cybersecurity analysts work in defending a company against cybercrime. They help protect computer networks, both hardware and software from cyber attacks and unauthorised access. Cybersecurity engineers help create software that protects against cyber attacks.  

Required Skills: Cybersecurity, Ethical Hacking, Information Security

Average years of experience: 1.8

Pharmacy manager

Pharmacy managers are responsible for the day-to-day running of the pharmacies (farmacie) you’ll see on almost every street in Italy.

Required Skills: Pharmaceutical Sales, Pharmaceuticals

Average years of experience: 3.8 years

Data engineer (Ingegnere dei dati)

Required skills: Apache Spark, Scala, Hadoop

Average years of experience: 3 years

Cloud Architect/Cloud Engineer

Required skills: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Cloud Computing

Average years of prior experience: 13.5 

Machine Learning Engineer (Ingegnere dell’apprendimento automatico)

Required skills: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Data Science 

Average years of experience: 3.3 years

Solutions Engineer

In this role, you’ll work alongside a salesperson to discover a customer’s business challenges and help them create solutions.

Required skills: Cloud Computing, Software Development, Business Intelligence 

Average years of experience: 5 years

Purchasing manager

Purchasing department managers deal with the procurement of goods and services, negotiating with suppliers and defining purchasing strategies and methods. 

Required skills: Supplier Management, Negotiation, E-procurement 

Average years of experience: 3.5

PLC programmer

PLC programmers create and manage application software for industrial plant and machinery driven by programmable logic devices.

: PLC, Automation, Programming

Average years of experience: 2.5

Back-end developer (Sviluppatore back-end)

Back-end developers are coders who work on the content management creation systems behind the running of a website. 

Required skills: Git, Docker, MongoDB 

Average years of experience: 7 years

Partnership manager

Managing relationships with business partners to achieve common goals.

Required skills: Business planning, Marketing strategy, Business development 

Average years of experience: 5.2

Data management consultant (Consulente della gestione dei dati)

Required skills: Machine learning, ETL, Python

Average years of experience: 5.3 years

M&A Consultant (Consulente M&A)

Advising companies regarding the processes of acquisition and merger.

Required skills: Corporate Finance, Due Diligence

Average years of experience: 2.7

DevOps Engineer

A DevOps engineer introduces processes throughout the development of a piece of software from coding right through to the finished product.  

Required skills: Docker Products, Amazon Web Services, DevOps

Average years of experience: 4 years

Robotics Engineer (Ingegnere robotico)

Robotic engineers work on the design, construction and testing of robots in various industries.

Required skills: Robotics, Process Automation, Programming

Average years of experience: 1.6

Legal advisor (consulente legale)

Legal advisors are responsible for providing advice and information to clients on specific legal aspects in certain circumstances or transactions.

Required skills: Legal Aid, Legal Writing, Corporate Law

Average years of experience: 2.7

Human resources specialist (Specialista amministrativo risorse umane)

Human Resources administrators deal with various aspects of personnel management, including the coordination of payroll and holidays.

Required skills: HR Management, Employee Relations, Administration

Average years of experience: 2.9

To see the latest job postings in Italy visit The Local’s jobs board here.

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WORKING IN ITALY

Cafe culture and clocking out: Why remote work is so unpopular in Italy

The era of working from home in Italy ended with the Covid pandemic as Italians still overwhelmingly prefer to commute to the office and network in person, writes Silvia Marchetti.

Published: 4 September 2023 17:00 CEST
Cafe culture and clocking out: Why remote work is so unpopular in Italy

With the Covid pandemic over, most Italians are now back to the office, sitting behind their desks and again clocking in at work. What happened to remote working or teleworking (also called ‘smart working’ in Italy)?

In my view this is (or was) the greatest novelty to come out of the pandemic, but it does not seem to have stuck in Italy. What have we learned from the pandemic about revolutionising the traditional workplace? Nulla.

Almost 80 percent of Italians worked from home during the pandemic – mostly for the first time, as the concept was almost unheard of before. But just 14.9 percent still work remotely today.

One reason for this is the simple fact that Italians need to hang out. They’re real political animals and for many the office is their most important social hub, after the family setting.

Unlike in other Western countries, the office is where 90 percent of one’s career is built by networking and PR, rather than on real merit and achievement. My dad always says that an after-lunch espresso with “important colleagues” is more valuable than a 12-hour shift sitting in front of a computer.

Italians have a saying: “le conoscenze contano”, meaning that knowing the right people can advance your career.

I once had a job contract at a leading industrial lobby in Rome, and I remember hours spent at the bar or having lunch chatting with colleagues and employees about future projects and summits, when all I wanted to do was rush through the speeches and papers I had to write. Eventually, I quit.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s crazy’: What to expect when you work for an Italian company

Italians are also very physical in everything they do, so the workplace must be a concrete spot, set apart from home. 

Multi-tasking is hard, and flexibility at work is as feared as the plague. It is seen as working seven days a week, on a 24-hour basis if you do it remotely. Italian workers would rather be with colleagues in person at the office, then at the beach having to answer emails.

The working week in Italy is as sacrosanct as Sunday mass. Once you’ve clocked out, you’re out. The universe may collapse but it’s not your call to step in and rescue it. Smartphones may have somewhat blurred the work-home boundary even in Italy, but haven’t destroyed it.

Lately I have noticed that virtual press conferences, events, and festivals are no longer available, during the pandemic I just needed a laptop to listen to speeches. Now I often need to take a taxi to get to the venue. It’s aggravating. 

Back to the daily commute: in Italy, seeing colleagues in person is all-important. Photo by JEsse on Unsplash

All over the world people go to cafés and bars to work from their laptops. But in Italy it’s a bit different. 

Over here, we do things our way: writing a paper while you devour a cornetto would not be cool. My gran had a saying: “Ogni cosa a suo tempo”, meaning ‘everything has its time’.

Cafés for most Italians are hangout spots where you chat with friends or colleagues and have a quick coffee on the run, gulping it down at the counter rather than sitting down. They’re not ideal places for working. 

READ ALSO: Italy ranked one of the worst countries for expats to work in – again

In some northern Italian cities, sitting for hours at nice panoramic cafés with a steaming cappuccino while answering emails may be more popular, mainly because many cafés in Milan, Bologna and Turin are huge and have several rooms. But this is not something you can do in the south.

All of this means Italy is probably one of the worst countries in Europe for remote work, and it’s not just because of the mindset. 

Many parts of the country still lack high-speed internet, especially rural areas, but also cities. I live north of Rome and don’t even have a home WIFI, so I’m considering subscribing to one of those internet companies that provide signal to yachts in the middle of the sea and campers on isolated mountain tops. 

This lack of digital infrastructure makes it hard both for Italians teleworking and for foreigners hoping to relocate to Italy and work remotely for companies abroad or as freelancers. 

READ ALSO: What happened to Italy’s planned digital nomad visa?

However, I still think that even if all of Italy was hooked up with supersonic internet, Italians would still prefer to commute to a physical workplace each day.

Foreigners have long been waiting for the ‘digital nomad’ visa, approved in 2021 and then forgotten by the new government that seems to have other priorities. One politician from the ruling coalition told me the law is rotting in parliament simply because there are so many other ways to lure foreign money which are viewed as safer.

The cheap homes bonanza, the 7 percent flat tax rate for expat retirees in several southern regions, and the elective residency visa for pensioners, are all examples of more concrete measures sure to bring significant taxes into state coffers. 

Meanwhile, digital nomads are often seen as ‘vague’ freelancers whose job isn’t quite clear, who can’t be easily classified and tracked down. In other words, digital nomads are somehow perceived by authorities, in my view, as potential tax dodgers.

I think Italy has lost an opportunity to really embrace remote work. If not even a global pandemic has the power to modernise the Italian workplace, I don’t know what can.

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