Towards greater internationalisation
Piemonte has approximately 4,200,000 inhabitants. In recent years, the natural demographic growth has been perfectly in line with other European countries, while its attractiveness for foreign citizens has grown considerably, a sign of the region's strong trend towards an increasingly cosmopolitan nature, linked mainly to two factors: the arrival of students and foreign workers.

Quality skills
Increasingly involved in a constant process of professional specialisation, Piemonte's labour market offers high-level professional profiles, the result of over 3,500 degree courses offered by the universities of Piemonte and the Politecnico di Torino for Italian and foreign students.

Source: Osservatorio Istruzione Piemonte 2005

In addition to highly qualified professionals, Piemonte stands out for its specialised workforce, the result of its excellence in the industrial sector.

Source: ISTAT DATA

Employment contracts
The recent reforms of labour law (legislative decree 276/2003) have greatly extended the possible solutions for hiring and collaboration, with the purpose of always giving companies the most appropriate means for their specific requirements:
- Open-end contract
- Fixed-term work
- Apprenticeship
- Job-sharing
- Job on call
- Project work
- Work entry contract
- Temp agency work
- Staff leasing
- Part-time
- Reduced time work
- Training and orientation placements

These are just some of the forms of employment which, according to the situation, can guarantee reductions in social security contributions of up to 50%.

Means of support
The labour market enjoys very effective and varied support divided into two main areas: the employment relationship and training.

The employment relationship envisages various support instruments, such as:
- lowering of social security expenses of up to 75% or 100% for particular categories of workers
- tax bonuses or grants for the employment of various types of worker according to whether they are new workers, unemployed young people, laid-off workers or graduates, researchers and R&D personnel
- possibility of using personnel dedicated to research work on loan from universities or public research bodies
- contributions to support scholarships or research grants at universities or polytechnics
- fixed-term work entry contracts, allowing companies average savings, over a two-year period, of about 25-30% of labour costs


Training is guaranteed at all levels through:
- generic training: this concerns the preliminary phases of training, whether delivered to employees or unemployed workers awaiting induction into the company, apprentices and/or "work entry" personnel
- updating and upgrading: continuous and periodic training for adaptation to new technologies, new processes, the quality system
- specialist training for technicians, managers, administrative staff. In these cases, the company must prepare its training plan in advance in order to be able to use to the best the calls for applications that are issued periodically.