63% of those interviewed say they are ‘optimistic’ or ‘fairly optimistic’ about the future, although the 37% who are in ‘pessimistic’ territory are more than a warning light to be aware of. The cornerstones for dealing with it remain the ‘family’ (51% of responses) and ‘love and emotional life’ (46% of responses), a kind of comfort zone to better manage the fear of ‘not being able to achieve my life goals’, reported as the one most felt with 43% of responses, or of ‘not having a job that allows me to be economically independent’, followed with 42% of responses.
There were mixed responses, on the border between the desire to put oneself to the test and the perception of obstacles to overcome. As many as 66% of those interviewed state that their real life is (very or fairly) distant from their ideal life, thus registering a complexus of frustrated expectations that it would be short-sighted to ignore: thus, on the one hand 61% say they are determined, 59% serene, 58% able to adapt to situations, 52% happy and 51% optimistic.
On the other hand, these same data denote a large area of young people whose emotional state is more marked by the feeling of being in greater difficulty and having fewer tools to deal with it. In this situation, however, there is no room for self-pity or for the weakness of will frequently stereotypically attributed to young Italians.
While 56% of 16-26 year-old respondents, in fact, believe that today's young people have ‘more problems’ than those of yesterday (compared to 33% who see ‘the same problems’ and 11% ‘fewer problems’ in the inter-generational comparison), the share of those who see more opportunities (42%) and fewer opportunities (43%) is almost identical; not only that, but 40% of the young people interviewed think that in the future they will have a better situation (economically, in terms of income and work) than their parents, against 18% who think it will be worse and 27% who think it will be the same.
Certainly, young Italians do not want to miss the appointment with the future and with those macro-trends that are the subject of the main debates today. First and foremost, they show themselves to be up-to-date on the main vectors of change: for example, 75% of those interviewed indicate that they know the concept of sustainability ‘well’ or ‘fairly well’ and 60% think they can make a contribution to greater sustainability. The main barriers to sustainability, according to the respondents, are above all the ‘lack of education and formation of citizens’ (25%) and the lack of interest of citizens themselves in sustainability policies (25%). Within this framework, the majority of 16-26 year-olds (48%) think that the impact of the ecological transition on the world of work will be positive and 68% register interest in working in the sustainability sector (‘very much’ or ‘quite a lot’).
There is, however, a need for more appropriate skills, as 47% of the young people reached by the survey recognise the adequacy of the current formation offer, compared to 42% who register contrary considerations. If we move from the level of sustainability to the other major macro-trend being debated today, that of Artificial Intelligence, the representations do not change. 59 per cent think it will have a positive impact on the world of work, 45 per cent that the work generated by AI will be better (as opposed to 14 per cent who imagine it to be worse) and 65 per cent of respondents believe that Artificial Intelligence will generate new professions, in addition to having a positive impact on the ecological transition for 59 per cent of respondents.
All the information on the research projects can be found on the IUSVE Observatory's new website ‘Giovani e futuro’, available from 30 January at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
‘The young adults who emerge from the survey,’ says Davide Girardi, head of the IUSVE Observatory “Giovani e futuro”, ’are well aware of the challenges that await them in the coming years and do not expect any discount. On the other hand, however, they are also aware that making it without public investment in their skills and potential is much more difficult. In this sense, they represent on the one hand the will to be protagonists of change, but they do not hide their fear of failure. This fear must be taken seriously, also in the light of the disinvestment in their own young people that the country has shown over the years and the demographic contraction that sees precisely the youth component, the most strategic for the future, shrinking in a more than evident and dangerous way for the future of the country itself'.
