Dynamics of IT and Digital Professional Profiles in Italy: An analysis of the trajectories of required soft skills

Work, in an evolving context, influences production factors and labor force dynamics. Access to the labor market is crucial for the meeting of supply and demand, with skills playing a key role in improving the competitiveness of businesses and employees, reshaping compensation structures. In an innovation-driven environment, soft skills emerge as a response to the challenge of change, essential for addressing the risk of skills obsolescence. Therefore, analyzing the relationship between the recruitment process and the required skills is critical. This study uses a dataset of over one and a half million job placements across the main macro-sectors in Italy (2016-2024), with statistical units relating to candidates and the soft skills necessary for selection. The analysis focuses on professional profiles within the "IT and Digital" sector, reclassified according to the ESCO definition as "Information and communications technology professionals."