There was a time, not too far away, when the first job after graduation seemed to have to be accepted almost out of gratitude. A low-paid internship, a fragile contract, a job far from the course of study, as long as it was an entry into the adult world, an extra line on the CV, the promise – often vague – that sooner or later something would change. That time, at least in the perception of young Italian graduates, seems over. Or, more realistically, he began to lose his moral strength.
The new report AlmaLaurea on graduation and employment in fact, it tells of a country in which young graduates work more than in the past, but are also much less willing to accept any conditions in order to work. The employment rate grows and exceeds 90% five years after obtaining the qualificationa figure that conveys the image of a university still capable of producing employment. But within this good news lies another, perhaps even more interesting on a social level: work is no longer enough. Must be consistent, dignified, paid appropriately.
According to AlmaLaurea, today the 66.9% of graduates reject offers with a monthly net salary lower than 1,500 euros for a full-time job. In 2016 this percentage was just 24.4%. In ten years, therefore, not only has the market changed: the psychological, economic and symbolic threshold below which an entire generation no longer seems to want to descend has changed.
There is work, but it’s no longer enough
The photograph that emerges from the report is not the caricatured and somewhat lazy one of young people who don’t want to work. Rather, it is that of a generation that has seen the cost of living rise faster than salaries, that has invested years in training, often with the financial support of families, and that today demands that that investment also be recognized in the paycheck.
The crux is all here: work alone is no longer a guarantee of autonomy. A salary that is too low, especially in large cities, does not allow you to build real independence, pay rent, plan an adult life without being trapped in continuous precariousness. And so the refusal of salaries under 1,500 euros does not appear as a generational whim, but as the response to a market that for years has asked for flexibility, adaptation, availability, without always restoring stability and prospects.
AlmaLaurea connects this change of attitude to a double push: on the one hand the growing desire to see the university path economically recognised, on the other the erosion of purchasing power produced by inflation. In other words, young graduates aren’t just asking to earn more. They ask that work return to have a concrete meaning in daily life.
Refusal of jobs inconsistent with the course of study
Selectivity isn’t just about salary. Refusal towards jobs that are not consistent with the course of study is also growing. Today the 76.4% of undergraduates declares that he would not accept a job far from his training. Ten years ago, however, the willingness to accept inconsistent jobs was equal to87.2%.
Here too the data tells much more than an individual preference. After years in which young people were asked to be flexible, adaptable, ready to reinvent themselves, the new generation of graduates seems to be claiming the right to coherence. Not just any job, but a job that has a relationship with what you have studied, with the skills acquired, with the professional identity you have tried to build.
It is a profound cultural transformation, because it shifts the axis of discussion: no longer just access to the job market, but the quality of access. No longer just the contract, but the content of the work. No longer just employment, but recognition.
Salaries of graduates: how much do you really earn
On the salary front, the AlmaLaurea report shows progressive growth with each passing year of the title, but also a picture that is still far from full economic satisfaction. One year after graduation, the average net paycheck is just over 1,490 euros per month. Five years after the title, the average salary reaches 1,796 euros for those who have obtained a three-year degree and 1,903 euros for those with a master’s degree.
Numbers that explain well why the 1,500 euro threshold has become so central to the debate. For many young graduates it no longer represents an ambitious goal, but the minimum point from which to start to consider an offer compatible with reality. Especially if we consider the weight of inflation, the increase in rents, the cost of transport, bills and life in urban areas where the greatest demand for qualified work is often concentrated.
The average figure, however, should not be misleading. The differences remain profound between degree courses, territories and gender. The South continues to be penalized, confirming a historical fracture that weighs on the employment and salary possibilities of young people. The university degree helps, but does not eliminate the country’s inequalities.
The gender gap remains an open wound
In the AlmaLaurea report the gap between men and women also remains evident. All things being equal, men have the 13.7% more likely to be employed compared to women and receive an average wage higher than 67 euros.
The paradox is that women continue to represent the majority of graduates: they are the 59.6% of the total. Yet, this numerical superiority does not automatically translate into equal opportunities in the job market. In STEM disciplines, i.e. mathematics, physics and engineering, women still remain a minority, equal to 40.5%while they are much more present in the humanistic areas.
The problem, therefore, is not just access to university, but what happens afterwards. The transition between training and work continues to reward paths, networks, sectors and career models that do not always guarantee the same opportunities. And the pay gap, even when it appears contained in absolute numbers, remains the sign of a structural disparity that has not yet been resolved.
The university remains an investment, but requires answers from the market
Despite the difficulties, the report also provides important data on the relationship between young people and universities. THE’89.1% of those interviewed declares himself satisfied with the academic experience and the 72.1% would make the same choice of course and university again.
The university, therefore, is not perceived as a mistake. It remains an investment, an identity passage, a place of personal and professional training. But precisely because it is recognized as a value, young people ask that that value not be lost when they enter the job market.
The director of AlmaLaurea, Marina Timoteoexplained that the data shows how the gaze of male and female graduates on work is “attentive, selective, and has precise directions on a value level”. It’s a phrase that sums up the paradigm shift well. The new generation no longer evaluates work only as an economic necessity, but as a space in which to measure dignity, coherence, growth and recognition.
The generation of no to poor work
The political, social and cultural point is all in that “no”. No to too low salaries. No to jobs disconnected from your studies. No to the idea that entry into the world of work must necessarily go through a long, underpaid apprenticeship. No to the rhetoric of infinite sacrifice, when sacrifice does not open up prospects but produces immobility.
The generation that is leaving university today does not seem to ask for privileges, but for minimum conditions of sustainability. Work remains central, but it can no longer be described as an abstract value, separated from remuneration, from the quality of life, from the possibility of building a future.
For companies, the message is very clear: attracting young graduates no longer means simply offering a position. It means proposing a credible project, adequate remuneration, a coherent path, a work culture capable of speaking to a generation that has learned to weigh its own value. And who, for the first time with this strength, seems ready to say no.
