Graduates in the year of the crisis: only six out of ten find a job

They graduated in one of the most difficult periods in the last years, with the economic crisis and the widespread uncertainty in the labour market. In the province of Varese in 2008 more than 3,700 tudents (3,732 to be precise) graduated from university. But only 60 per cent of them found a job in the twelve months after their graduation. The principal job opportunities were in the Social service sector, in the manufacturing and in the commerce/tourism industries. These are the results of a recent report published by Formaper, a special agency of the Chamber of Commerce in Milan, and notified today by the Chamber of Commerce in Varese. It focuses in particular on the job opportunities for young Lombards who graduated “in a time of crisis”.

The industries that “hired” the most – As for the province of Varese the main job opportunities for young graduates were in the social and personal service industry, which took in 41% of 2008 graduates, of whom about 30% in the education and health sectors. The manufacturing industry, one of the basis of the economy of this territory, managed to give a job to 18.5% of 2008 graduates, with a high concentration in the engineering/electronics industries and also in the chemistry and plastic materials industries, going against the trend, in comparison to the Lombard data. As a consequence of the crisis, though, also in this industry the graduates from Varese with a job result to be decreasing. Finally, in the commerce and tourism sector, 13.4% of 2008 graduates found a job.

Temporary workers and training periods increase in number – The report confirms, as it was expected, the higher flexibility of working relations. The firms in the territory mainly choose fixed-term contracts to introduce new graduates (50% of them) in the labour market, with an increase in joint work and training periods.

The most popular degrees – In comparison to the Lombard average, the choice tends to be engineering degrees, followed by study courses focused on education, on the languages field, on the political-social area, on literature and philosophy and on medical sciences.

Comparing them to the most sought-after degrees in the labour market of the region and of the province may offer some interesting observation. The most sought-after degrees in Varese are, starting from the most popular, the various engineering degrees (in particular manufacturing engineering), education-oriented studies, which are sought-after only to face the high number of retirements of this last period, though, and medicine and paramedical job-related degrees. At the regional level, the best job performances for a university degree are made by education-oriented degrees, nursing, and mathematics-engineering certificates (in this order: automation and mechanical, management and electronics engineering). It must not be forgotten, though, that in 2008, Onda (a student movement) began to make its voice heard and speak for the people in the academic sector who question the Gelmini Reform and its important cuts to the public servant sector. It is important to remember that medicine and nursing jobs are available in a limited number, and the Ministry itself evaluates the candidates and decides whether to assign them to the vacant positions.

The struggling study courses are linked to private practices (veterinary science, law, architecture) because of the market saturation due to the excessive number of graduates in these fields.

The number of enrolments increases – For what concerns university students in Lombardy, the number of the total enrolments in the academic year 2008-2009, both in public and private universities is steady. On the contrary the number of enrolments for bachelor’s and master’s degrees is increasing. The report on the previous studies of the graduates proved to be very prominent; most bachelor’s degree graduates are from a liceo, but the number of graduates with a secondary education coming from an technical institute (22.5%) or an professional institute (6.7%) reaches 30%.

The results of the report were presented these last days to the last year students of Crespi classical and Linguistic School in Busto Arsizio and the Classical School in Varese. The whole Specula Lombardia report may be consulted on the site created by the Chamber of Commerce Study Office in Varese www.osserva-varese.it in the section “Studi e Ricerche”.