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Over 50, still in the saddle

Over 50, still in the saddle

Skills mismatch in Italy: more people working, roles nobody can fill

The skills mismatch is the paradox Luca Semeraro, CEO of LHH Italia, puts at the center of an analysis published on Agenda Digitale. Italy has never had so many people in work, yet almost one company in two struggles to find candidates with the skills it needs. For years the debate counted available jobs. Now it counts how well the demand for know-how meets the supply, and artificial intelligence, digitalization and new organizational models keep reshuffling the deck.

At 53, reading those numbers, I recognized a piece of my own story. Let’s take it step by step.

The numbers: record employment and seven companies in ten hunting for talent

According to Istat, Italy’s national statistics institute, 24.35 million people were employed in August 2026. The employment rate stood at 63%, with 291,000 more workers than twelve months earlier. A few years ago we would have celebrated without reservation.

The flip side shows up in ManpowerGroup’s Talent Shortage 2026 report: 70% of Italian employers say they can’t find suitably skilled candidates. That’s better than the previous year’s 78%, but in tech and IT the gap climbs to 77%, followed by energy and utilities (75%) and manufacturing (74%). Agenda Digitale, using a different scope, puts the share of struggling companies above 45%. The survey methods differ, the substance holds.

The starting point weighs in too. The European Commission’s State of the Digital Decade 2026 report credits Italy with 54.3% of adults holding at least basic digital skills. That’s a big jump from 45.8% the year before, yet still well short of the EU average (60.4%) and of the 80% target set for 2030.

Workers over 50 are holding up Italian employment

One detail hits close to home. In Istat’s August figures, growth comes mainly from workers aged 50 and over, while the 15-24 and 35-49 age groups shrink. The CNEL bulletin produced with Istat confirms the trend: 9.564 million employed people are over 50, about 39% of the total. In the 50-64 bracket, the employment rate has risen from 42.1% in 2004 to 68.3% in the second quarter of 2026.

2004, as it happens, is the year I signed my first employment contract. Back then, someone my current age had less than an even chance of being employed; today the odds are far better. CNEL credits demographics, pension reforms and longer schooling. I’d add a factor no statistic captures.

Which skills companies are looking for in 2026

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 estimates that 39% of core skills will change by 2030. Italian companies have noticed. Beyond hard skills in AI, cybersecurity and cloud, ManpowerGroup records rising demand for power skills. Analytical thinking is requested by 38% of employers, because someone has to check the machine’s output and catch its hallucinations. Resilience and adaptability follow (35%), then collaboration (33%).

The most pragmatic response comes from the 26% of companies that have stopped chasing the perfect external candidate and are investing in upskilling and reskilling their own people. Semeraro makes the same point: continuous training, with organizations turning into places of lifelong learning.

My passion for technology shielded me from layoffs

Over my career I’ve weathered reorganizations, layoffs and every kind of change of course. I spent many years at PayPal and eBay Classifieds Group, working across localization, UX writing and communications. Then I went freelance, and today I’m a UX Writer at Coverflex, which won me over with a job listing written with people in mind (I wrote about it in Job listings out of focus).

When I ask myself what kept me afloat through the ups and downs, the answer is always the same: my passion for technology. It’s an almost stubborn curiosity that pushes me to keep searching, testing and learning. Today’s reports call it resilience and adaptability and put it at the top of employers’ wish lists. For me it was simply a way of being in the world.

How I use AI to write this blog

This blog is the proof. Each article is a joint effort with AI. It helps me gather sources, data and statistics, suggests angles and takes on the repetitive chores that used to eat up hours. The part I enjoy most, though, lies elsewhere: after so much time working together, it has absorbed my irony and my studied yet light approach. A bit like a longtime colleague who now finishes my sentences, with more patience than I have for bibliographies.

As I wrote in AI fatigue has become reality, since I started using it daily I feel less drained, because I can focus on the creative, narrative side I love most.

Staying in the saddle or pulling on the reins

Here’s how I see it: AI exposes us to billions of facts and pieces of information, at a breathtaking pace. It’s up to us to decide whether to stay in the saddle and learn to control the gait, or pull on the reins and stop. Stopping is a legitimate choice, of course. But we have to accept that the market won’t slow down to wait for anyone, and whoever stops risks being thrown.

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Chiara Bonifazi