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Online job ads in Italy: a regional analysis of ICT professionals

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Abstract

In European countries, there is a growing interest in integrating traditional statistical sources on the labour market with online job ads. They offer detailed and timely information on the use of the Internet for recruiting and the specific skills required at different levels (particularly at a territorial and sectoral level). In this context, this paper proposes an analysis of the similarity between the Italian regions regarding required skills by employers. The study looks at a specific group of innovation-related occupations, ICT professionals, that are believed to be sufficiently represented by online data. The results highlight a regional gap in the use of online offers and differences in professional profiles regarding required skills. Finally, regional skill similarities are compared with some regional features related to the labour market and training.

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Data availability

Data are not available for free but upon payment of a fee. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are thankful to the editor, coeditor, and referees for their valuable comments, which have significantly enhanced the quality of this article.

Notes

  1. Some data insights for the European Union at https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/data-insights/ict-professionals-skills-opportunities-and-challenges-2019-update#_summary (URL accessed July, 2023).

  2. https://esco.ec.europa.eu/en/home (URL accessed July, 2023).

  3. https://competenzedigitali.org/.

  4. Source: Lightcast™ 2022.

  5. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/experimental-statistics/skills.

  6. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Category:Glossary (URL accessed October, 2022).

  7. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/labor-market/job-vacancies (URL accessed October, 2022).

  8. https://data.wollybi.com/visual/public/index.

  9. https://www.istat.it/en/labour-market-areas (URL accessed July 2023).

  10. For details see https://excelsior.unioncamere.net/en/survey.

  11. The NUTS1 level areas 1-North-West (Piemonte, Val d’Aosta, Liguria, Lombardia), 2-North-East (Trentino A.A., Vento, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna), 3-Center (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), 4-South (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria), 5-Islands (Sicilia, Sardegna) have been grouped in three macro areas: North (levels 1 and 2), Center (level 3), South (levels 4 and 5).

  12. It is noted that the Eurostat-OECD statistical definition of ICT specialists includes also the ISCO group 133 ICT Service managers and other groups that are primarily involved in the production of ICT goods and services (OECD 2018).

  13. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=ICT_specialists_in_employment (URL accessed October, 2022).

  14. Source: https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/16777.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the editor, coeditor, and referees for their valuable comments, which have significantly enhanced the quality of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Department of Excellence project 2018–2022 – Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications – University of Florence, Grant No. 13599/2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica e Applicazioni “G. Parenti”, Università di Firenze, Viale Morgagni, 59, 50134, Florence, Italy

    Adham Kahlawi, Lucia Buzzigoli, Francesca Giambona, Laura Grassini & Cristina Martelli

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  1. Adham Kahlawi
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Correspondence to Adham Kahlawi.

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Appendix

Appendix

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Table 6 Regional skill importance similarities (SIS) matrix (2019) Source: Our processing of Lightcast™ data
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6 and

Table 7 Regional distance (Dist) matrix (2019) Source: Our processing of Istat data
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7

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Kahlawi, A., Buzzigoli, L., Giambona, F. et al. Online job ads in Italy: a regional analysis of ICT professionals. Stat Methods Appl (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10260-023-00735-9

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