The Italian Public Administration is undergoing a massive face-lift. In 2024, the total number of civil servants reached 3,388,794 (a 1.8% increase from 2023), with projections on track to clear the 3.4 million mark by the end of this year. While this expansion is largely propped up by hiring sprees in Education and Research (+60,000 workers over two years) and Healthcare (+32,000), the real story is a generational shift. Thanks to civil service exams tied to the EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), workers under the age of 30 surged from 157,900 to nearly 210,000, a stunning 33% leap in a single year, according to data compiled by FPA (Digital360 Group) from the State General Accounting Department.
This staff turnover marks a major step forward, with 214,000 new hires eclipsing 117,000 departures between 2023 and 2024. However, "age management" remains a tricky bottleneck: the average age dropped only slightly to 49 years and 4 months, and 54% of the public workforce is still over the age of 50. To bridge this generational divide, Italy is betting heavily on education. University graduates now make up a consolidated 59% majority of the workforce. To support this rising baseline, 2024 saw a record-breaking 4.47 million days of professional training delivered, a number poised to climb higher following a January 2025 ministerial directive mandating a minimum of 40 hours of annual training per employee.
Yet, despite these positive strides in modernization and skills, a structural crisis looms large: declining purchasing power. Between 2014 and 2024, the average real civil service salary (adjusted for inflation) dropped from €34,374 to €32,883. Experts warn that addressing these wage stagnation issues is vital if the public sector hopes to stay competitive and retain its newly acquired young talent.