Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
ROME – More than 571,000 fewer members in fourteen years and a contraction that has accelerated alarmingly in the last three years, exceeding 5% year-on-year. This is the picture painted by the statistical and actuarial analysis of the national social security institute (INPS) on the Artisans’ Scheme for 2018–2024, promoted by Francesco Sgherza, chair of the INPS administrative committee.
From 2011 to 2025 the number of artisan contributors fell by 31.3%, from about 1.82 million to an estimated 1.25 million workers. What concerns experts most is the speed at which businesses are closing: while the average annual reduction in the previous decade was 2%, since 2023 it has risen to declines of more than 5%, reaching an estimated -5.91% between 2024 and 2025.
What former artisans do: re-employment, pensions and the phenomenon of the “silent”
The study tracked the subsequent career paths of almost 700,000 people removed from the Scheme between 2018 and 2024:
- New employment (50.33%): 63.6% found work as private-sector employees, 18.3% in self-employed or quasi-self-employed roles and 13% returned to the same Artisans’ Scheme.
- Retirements (23.61%) and deaths (4.58%).
- “Silent” group (21.48%): Over 148,000 people who left the scheme are untraceable in INPS records the following year. In the South and on the Islands this percentage rises to 26.47%, concentrated mainly in the 45–59 age group.
There is also marked ageing in the sector: the share of those closing their business after the age of 60 rose from 27.2% in 2018 to 37.2% in 2024. Geographically, over 58% of cancellations occur in the North (33% north-west, 25.5% north-east), followed by central Italy (21.5%) and the Mezzogiorno (20%).
The need to update the framework law and UAI’s warning
The investigation highlights the urgency of revising Law no. 443 of 1985 (the framework law on craft trades), which is inadequate to tackle the challenges of globalisation, digitalisation and generational change.
Gabriele Tullio, a member of the INPS administrative committee and national president of the Unione Artigiani Italiani (UAI), commented:
“The craft trade figures are understandably worrying: we are seeing a negative trend and a 5% annual decline over the last three years, an unacceptable figure for a sector that has always been a pillar for Italy.
We now need a strong joint effort, starting with politics and the new law on craft trades currently being drafted, to reverse this trend. We must become positive again: craft trades mean jobs and bring real wealth to local areas.”
