(Finance) – For the start of the new year “ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey” (MEOS) records a cautious optimism on the part of Italian companies regarding their hiring forecasts. Even faced with a delicate economic climate, the majority of Italian companies plan to increase their workforce in the next three months. The Net Employment Outlook (NEO – employment forecast) for the next quarter is in fact +19% net of seasonal adjustments, a positive figure for the 17th quarter in a row. The figure does not show any changes compared to the closing quarter of the current year, while it is 6 percentage points higher in the year-on-year comparison. At the level of individual sectors, there is a slowdown in the IT and Telecommunications sector, while maintaining positive expectations, while Energy, Utilities, Healthcare and Life Sciences continue to be the driving forces.
“Despite a still uncertain economic situation, there are many Italian companies that are resilient and plan to increase their workforce in the next quarter – he states Anna Gionfriddo, managing director of ManpowerGroup Italia –. Our report also investigated where we are with respect to full gender equality: today only one company in four believes it has achieved full equality and in two years this value is expected to rise to 41%. The low female employment rate is one of the main problems of our economy: better equality in the workplace will have positive repercussions on the entire market.”
Sector comparisons: energy, healthcare and life sciences sectors are doing well, IT slows down
Even in a climate of reasonable stability, in which the sector average expects an increase in employment in the next quarter, differences can be seen between the different sectors, which reflect the decline in production indicated by Istat and the trade associations. From the comparison between the last quarter of 2024 and the first of 2025, organizations in the energy and utilities sector are strengthened, going from a NEO of +28% to +41% (13 percentage points positive), while those in healthcare and life are recovering sciences which went from +4% to +24% (20 points positive). Hiring forecasts for the consumer goods and services sectors are stable (from +21% to +20%, -1 point), industry and materials (from +18% to +17%, -1 point) and transport, logistics and automotive (from +17% to +13%, -4 points). Of note, however, is a marked slowdown in expected hiring – but not a decline in employment – for financial and real estate companies (from +28% to +19%, -9 points), telecommunications (from +25% to +15%, – 10 points) and the IT sector (from +41% to +20%, -20 points), while remaining one of the sectors with the best prospects.
Regional comparisons: the North West more optimistic macro-region, the South doing well
In the comparison between macro-regions of the country, the North West returns to the top with hiring prospects of +22%. The optimism recorded in the South and Islands area is also confirmed from one quarter to the next with +18%, while the North East sees its forecasts drop by 12 percentage points – from +28% to +16% – and slips into third position. The geographical area with the relatively worst forecasts remains, but still tending towards an increase in company workforce, those in Central Italy with +11%, -5 points compared to the last quarter of 2024.
Size comparisons: the larger the company, the more hires it expects
By dividing the companies based on size, we can see that as the number of staff already present grows, the intention to hire also grows. For micro-enterprises with up to 10 collaborators, the hiring prospect is +10%, while for small companies with between 10 and 49 people hired it is +14%. Looking at medium-sized organizations between 50 and 249 workers, the prospect is +18%. For large companies with up to 1000 employees, the figure is +21%. For very large companies the value recorded is even better: +41%. In slight contrast to what was recorded for higher level organizations with over 5 thousand employees, still recording a good +21%.
Extra questions: only a quarter of Italian companies believe they have achieved full equality
ManpowerGroup’s research also highlights the perception of Italian companies regarding gender equality: 26% believe they have already achieved full equality internally, while a further 41% say they are close to complete equality. 24% think they are still far from the objective, and 8% of Italian companies assume they still have a long way to go ahead of them (1% don’t know/don’t indicate). If we look at future scenarios, 41% of companies are confident that they will have achieved full gender equality within two years.
Among the initiatives implemented which according to companies can contribute to more equal hiring and retention processes, 42% indicate the building of relationships of trust between the various teams, while for 39% it is important to concretely help the well-being of people in staff and collaborators. For 37% of organizations, flexible arrangements for working places and hours, policies to ensure equal career opportunities and rewarding the efforts of collaborators to promote compliance with DEI – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion parameters are useful.
(Photo: Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash)