In Italy, 37.1% of employed people carry out activities that require the use of digital equipment for at least half of the working time, while on average in EU countries the percentage is 41.2%. 32.9% never use such equipment, compared to the European average of 27.5%. Overall, the percentage of women who use digital tools for at least half of their working time is significantly higher than that of men, 42.1 and 33.4% respectively.
This is stated by theIstat in the report ‘Professional skills in the Italian labor market’, according to which the lowest percentages of use of digital skills are found among foreigners (7.8 percent) and less educated people (9.1 percent). The ones who use digital tools the most to carry out their work are employed people aged 30-44, while in the 15-29 year old class there is the highest percentage of those who do not use this skill at all (36.5 percent).
IT prevalent among white-collar professions
The massive use of digital tools – both for basic operations (such as sending emails, dealing with social channels and communication) and for more complex activities based onuse of software or management applications – particularly characterizes the activity of employees, who in 80.9% of cases dedicate at least half of their working time to digital activities, especially if they are responsible for secretarial functions, money movements or customer support. Among office workers, the highest shares are found among women (88.5%) and graduates (89.1%) and a high use of digital skills is also found among those who carry out intellectual, scientific or technical professions: for both, around two-thirds say they use it for most of the working day PCs, tablets and smartphones.
Among intellectual and scientific professions, the share of those who dedicate at least half of their working time to digital activities is high for men (74.2%) and for graduates (67.4%), almost 90% for specialists in mathematical, computer, chemical, physical and natural sciences, for engineers and architects. Among technical professions, the share exceeds 80% for those who work in organisation, administration and financial and commercial activities.
The use of digital skills in various professional groups
The use of digital skills it is also quite widespread amongregulators, entrepreneurs and senior managementwho in over half of the cases use them for at least half of their working time: the percentage is close to 60% among women and reaches 77.6% among those with a tertiary qualification. Going into detail, however, behaviors are different between professional groups: legislative bodies, public administration managers as well as entrepreneurs, administrators and directors of large companies frequently resort to digital skills in over 75% of cases, share which among entrepreneurs and managers of small companies falls below 40%. Furthermore, 13.8% of the latter declare that they never use digital technologies in carrying out their work. Similarly, rare or no use characterizes specialized or semi-skilled workers, artisans, farmers, drivers of vehicles or machinery and those who carry out unskilled professions; in fact, over 90% declare that they rarely or never use PCs, tablets and smartphones in carrying out their work.
Cognitive reading and calculation skills show a strong positive correlation in all EU countries between the percentage of employed people who dedicate more than half of their working time to reading documents and the percentage of employed people who dedicate more than half of their working time carrying out complex calculations. The frequent use of these skills characterizes 19 percent of employed people (19.7 percent on European average).
Physical work as a skill for 37.4% of employed people
Physical work demanding from a muscular strength point of view is a skill used half or more of the time dto 37.4 percent of employed people (the EU average stands at 26.5 percent). Dexterity, referring to the ability to make precise finger movements involving small muscle groups such as those of the wrists, hands or fingers, generally coordinated by the eyes, is instead used by 23.2 percent (the EU average stops at 16.8 percent). Physical-motor skills are more frequent among men: 41.6 percent spend at least half of their time in physically demanding jobs (31.6 percent are women); those who carry out jobs that require precision of the fingers are 25.3 percent (20.2 percent are women). The percentage of those who use physical strength for at least half of their working time exceeds 60 percent among artisans, specialized workers, farmers and those who carry out unskilled professions. Autonomy in work increases with age, while those with a high level of education use relational skills more often.
