2) Graduates, between temporary job and unemployment

According to the last study carried out by Almalaurea in 2010, one year after graduating, 18% of master’s graduates are unemployed [1]. Compared with 2008, the percentage increased 7 percentage points.
In addition, it is more and more difficult for these graduates to get a stable job. In Italy, indeed, we see the spread of atypical contracts and undeclared work. Another important issue to mention concerns the income received by young graduates, which is increasingly lower: in 2010, one year after graduating, master’s graduates earned on average 1’078 euro per month, in 2009 the earned 1’133 euro and in 2008 1’205 euro (in real terms).

This low income level is also confirmed by the data published by OECD on the net annual income of people aged 25-34 [2] which, in Italy, is equal to 22,062 USD and is higher only than those registered in Slovakia, Portugal, Greece, Estonia, Hungary and Poland.

However, although young Italian graduates are among the poorest earners in Europe, the same cannot be said for their older fellows. From a OECD analysis, indeed, it emerges that the incomes of Italian graduates at an age of 45-54 are among the highest in Europe, after those registered in Luxembourg, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands and United Kingdom.
Compared with other EU countries, Italy has one of the highest unemployment rate of graduates at an age of 25 to 64. Worse rates are observed only in Turkey, Spain, Estonia, Ireland and Portugal (Table 1).

Undoubtedly, this alarming datum is due to several factors, such as the economic crisis and the inadequate number of investments made by the Italian University system.
One of the main cause of this situation can be imputable to the structure of the Italian production system, characterised by a strong presence of micro-enterprises [3]. The last report published by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) on companies’structure and size (2009) states that 95% of Italian firms have less than ten employees and employ 47% of workers.
The fact that Italian companies are so small and that they operate in sectors such as manufacturing, building and trade, with a low techonology level, does not contribute to the entry of graduates into the labour market.

According to the Excelsior Unioncamere Report, in 2011 Italian companies stated they wanted to hire around 74’000 graduates, 12% of the total expected employments (41% of them are high school graduates, 13% have professional qualifications and 33% completed compulsory education).
Another important aspect is the expectation on the employment of graduates in relation to companies’size (Table 2). In confirmation of what we said, the percentage of graduate recruitment goes hand in hand with the size of company: graduates to be hired are 6% of the total in companies with 1-9 employees, 10% in those with 10-49 employees and almost 20% in companies with 50 employees.