Employment is growing in Sardinia , but its real value isn't . This is the picture that emerges from the new report "Sardinia, the value of work. Wages, employment, productivity, bargaining and development ," produced by the "Giannetto Lay" Research Center of the CISL Sardinia , which will be presented on September 9th in Cagliari.
Between 2023 and 2025, employment increased from approximately 577,000 to approximately 598,000: 21,000 more people in two years . This significant result reflects a different picture of the island compared to the most difficult years of the crisis. But behind the growth in employment remains a crucial question: how much is work worth in Sardinia today?
A second piece of data changes the perspective . Between 2008 and 2023, average real wages for Sardinian private sector employees decreased by 15.2%, compared to the -6.2% recorded nationally.
And while the need for skills is growing, between 2019 and 2025 Sardinia recorded a negative migration balance of around 6,900 young Italian graduates between the ages of 25 and 34.
"The first thing we want to acknowledge is a positive thing," says Pier Luigi Ledda, General Secretary of the CISL Sardinia and President of the Giannetto Lay Research Center. "More people are working in Sardinia today. It would be wrong not to see this. But precisely because we've recovered employment, we can ask a more ambitious question: how much is the work we're creating worth? How long does it last, how much does it pay, what skills does it require, and what prospects does it offer people?"
EMPLOYMENT AND CONTINUITY – In 2025, the employment rate for 15-64 year-olds reached 58.2%, compared to 57.7% the previous year . Sardinia is well above the Southern Italian average, but still lags behind the Italian average. Furthermore, behind the overall growth, very different situations coexist: in 2025, permanent contracts made a significant contribution to new job creation, while in the first months of 2026, the increase was driven primarily by fixed-term contracts.
