A Glimpse into the Future
Pandemic, post-pandemic, recovery. And then war, energy crisis, economic crisis. The last two years have been uncertain, and 2023 is preparing to become the test case for all the new things that have emerged, thanks to the difficult circumstances we have faced. We know by now, and some of our alumni's success stories confirm, that every crisis also represents an opportunity. Many of these innovations have affected the world of work, or rather the way work is conceived. Work is one of our alumni's main interests, and that's why we begin our analysis with the employment data collected by the IED Alumni ID platform, created to provide valuable insights for the Community.
A general look at the IED Alumni world reveals that there are 13,572 of us. The ranking of nationalities sees Italy at the top, where 65% of the users live, thus confirming it as a reference point for creative work. Brazil, Spain, India, China, Colombia and Mexico follow. Job opportunities is the section of the IED Alumni platform that attracts the most attention. Thanks to our collaboration with companies, we have published more than 16,000 full-time job offers and over 800 internships from more than 7,200 companies. The most in-demand professions? Generally, those in Marketing and Communication, where the demand for creativity and design is always high, but where, searching by keywords, we find 'Management' and 'Strategy' among the most frequent. This means that creativity and strategy go increasingly hand in hand, and entrepreneurial skills are also increasingly in demand in salaried jobs. A fact that is not surprising if we broaden our gaze to the employment scenario in Italy.
The pandemic has challenged traditional ways of working in companies. People have been asked to bring skills such as a sense of responsibility, autonomy and flexibility into play. New ways of working, such as smart working, remote working and hybrid work, have allowed people to set new rhythms and balances and reflect on their future. In Europe, we have not witnessed a phenomenon like the Great Resignations of the United States. Yet, the Annual Report on Compulsory Communications of the Italian Ministry of Labour reports how employment contracts terminated due to voluntary resignation have risen from around 1,800,000 in 2019 to over 2,000,000 in 2021. Among the most affected sectors, Marketing and Communication, followed by IT. In creative jobs, the alternative is a career as a freelancer, and freelancers are a significant part of the IED Alumni Community. In fact, several high-added-value services are dedicated to them on our platform. Among them is the opportunity to take advantage of a significant discount on the Fiscozen platform and free access to the Statista platform and webinars. And it is precisely through Statista that we looked at the most vital consumer trends of the moment to watch out for in the coming year. The first thing we looked at were the main drivers for developing the new consumer trends, which Statista identified as Sustainability, Convenience, Health, Gamification and Shoppertainment, Personalisation and Digitalisation.
Sustainability in Fashion: an evolving trend
In the face of growing economic uncertainty, these factors will shift the balance of consumer choices. Going deeper into the areas that matter most to us, fashion is changing its face. While fewer and fewer companies are willing to communicate their efforts in this area to avoid accusations of greenwashing, people are asking brands to support them in a circular approach to fashion. How? By encouraging secondhand, the resale of pre-owned products and the possibility of repairing and using their garments over time. Something that many companies are already doing, from H&M to Adidas. There are also marketplaces such as Zalando, which offers users the possibility of reselling garments purchased on the platform.
As far as entertainment and experiences are concerned, virtual reality and augmented reality await their test in 2023. Whether the Metaverse has a future will be decided in the coming year. What is certain today is that more and more people worldwide are using innovative technologies for their purchases and that the forecast is for global growth of the phenomenon by 2025.
We will have the opportunity to talk more about this and take the opportunity to introduce you to the new IED Alumni Mentor Mariachiara Tirinzoni, who specialises in this very topic. But that's not all. In 2023 we will have the opportunity to explore other issues related to the future of work with a focus, of course, on the creative professions. And so, in wishing a Happy New Year to all our Community, we are more than happy than ever to give you an appointment for the next in-depth study.