Between 2010 and 2019, a period known as the decade of the ecological transition, green jobs in Italy increased. However, this growth did not lead to greater employment stability. On the contrary, jobs with a stronger environmental component are associated with a lower probability of securing a permanent contract. This finding emerges from a study published in the scientific journal Journal of Cleaner Production and carried out by Francesco Suppressa, researcher in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pisa, together with Silvana Dalmazzone and Roberto Leombruni of the University of Turin.
According to the research, new green hires increased over the period considered, particularly in occupations with the highest environmental intensity, rising from around 40,000 new hires in 2010 to approximately 56,000 in 2019. While northern Italy remains the area with the highest overall number of green hires, the most environmentally intensive jobs were more prevalent in southern Italy and the islands, particularly in the manufacturing sector and among male workers with medium to low levels of education.
The most critical finding, however, concerns job quality. The results show that the more a job is characterised by green tasks, the lower the likelihood of obtaining a permanent contract. Even when controlling for factors such as age, sector of activity and geographical area, workers employed in occupations with higher green intensity have a lower probability of accessing stable employment, with a difference of up to 2–3 percentage points compared with non-green jobs.
“The findings highlight a paradox in the labour market during the ecological transition,” observes Francesco Suppressa. “On the one hand, green jobs are expanding and becoming increasingly central to environmental policies; on the other, these very jobs are more often associated with temporary contracts and lower employment stability. A key element concerns the profile of the workers involved: many green jobs in Italy are concentrated in low-skilled occupations and among individuals with medium to low educational attainment, while a smaller share involves highly educated workers. What emerges is a form of bifurcation, whereby green employment develops mainly at the extremes of the labour market, without strengthening the intermediate segment. In this context, environmental sustainability risks taking root in already fragile employment segments, unless accompanied by targeted policies focused on job quality and training.”
From a methodological perspective, the study adopts a task-based approach to measuring green jobs, focusing on the specific tasks that make up an occupation and thus overcoming the limitations of prevailing methodologies based solely on sectors or job titles. By analysing more than 9,300 work activities described in the INAPP Sample Survey on Occupations, the researchers identified 204 tasks associated with green competences, present in 84 occupations within the Italian labour market. These data were then matched with mandatory notifications concerning employment contracts activated in Italy between 2010 and 2019.
