Research

Entry salaries in Piacenza run at €35,000-40,000 a year against an Italian average of €32,000. It still is not enough to attract engineers.

62% of young people say life in Piacenza is good. 35% want to leave anyway.

Only 5.1% of the young people surveyed moved to Piacenza in the past five years.

Eighty square metres in the centre cost up to €559 a month against a regional average of €392: 41% of graduates cannot find housing at a fair price.

More sophisticated HR levers do not automatically bring more talent: the territory weighs as much as the company.

Those who left are not planning to return: the intention to move back to Italy stops at 3.3 out of 7.

Work and pay are what keep them abroad. Parks, culture and healthcare are what could bring them to Emilia-Romagna.

The idea of moving to Emilia-Romagna (3.9) beats that of returning to Italy in general (3.3).

15.8% skip the questions on Emilia-Romagna against 2.5% on Italy: many simply do not know what the region has to offer.

Bologna is the first choice, but a small town only appeals if it sits on the coast or in the mountains.

For these companies sustainability is no external constraint: it is lower energy bills and a sharper profile on the market at once.

The skills most often named for sustainability are not technical ones: listening, empathy, handling cultural and generational diversity.

Measuring emissions and consumption has become data work: advanced digital skills and AI now sit among sustainability skills.

The training that works is mixed: in-person workshops to compare notes, online modules for theory, labs on real company cases.

Posters, internal memos and the Code of Ethics matter as much as courses: sustainability is also learned from what circulates every day.

Career growth, pay, job security: these are the three criteria Gen Z weighs a job offer with. Company welfare comes last.

In one year career growth lost 4.5 points as the top criterion, while job security gained 4.3.

Eight students out of ten expect between €1,000 and €2,000 net a month in their first job.

The job they want is varied, challenging, creative and flexible — measured by goals, not by hours.

They look for large, global, innovative organisations. And ones with a purpose: it matters more to women and to students in the Centre and South.

The ideal city has affordable housing, public transport, collaborative spaces and is open to diversity.

Forty-six abilities, fifteen skills, five areas: cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership, digital, sustainability.

In Frignano companies hire for soft skills more than hard ones: the technical part can be taught later.

Here relational skills point outwards: they are what helps newcomers settle into a district that struggles to welcome them.

More than artificial intelligence, companies need to handle and protect their data: on AI the uncertainty is still high.

People who stay in the mountains rarely change jobs for money — they change looking for a better place to work.