The new flexibility brings companies and candidates closer

The new flexibility, which combines flexible modes or flexible roles, including occasional and contract work, temporary or fractional assignments, career changes, remote work in “digital nomad” mode, AI-supported positions, and role rotation, promotes the meeting of companies and candidates, especially younger generations, particularly Generation Z, who do not necessarily consider having a stable and dependent job a priority and are also willing to consider forms of self-employment. This is a trend emerging from a report by Indeed and YouGov, which surveyed nearly 3,000 employers and over 7,000 workers across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United States.

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According to Gianluca Bonacchi, Talent Strategy Advisor at Indeed, in the ever-evolving world we live in, “we are forced to rethink the very concept of work, introducing an agile workforce organization. This new hybrid and dynamic system, capable of providing benefits to companies and workers, requires changes that can be unsettling but are now essential to optimize business results. The ability to offer diversified working methods becomes a strategic asset to effectively meet the needs of different categories of workers, ensuring mutual benefits.” Between artificial intelligence, which is rewriting the rules at an unprecedented pace on one side, and the evolving expectations of workers on the other, organizational agility is bringing companies and candidates closer together. On average, internationally, 87% of companies state that being able to rely on an agile workforce organization is “very” important for their business goals, and 64% of job seekers agree.

Analyzing the sectors, those where flexibility is extremely or very important are construction and mining (93%), IT (92%), hospitality and catering (90%), financial and banking services (89%), transportation. Those in which companies plan to increase flexible and non-traditional collaborators are media, PR and marketing (59%), IT (58%), construction and mining (58%), human resources (56%), retail (54%).

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Those seeking work in Italy are more receptive to flexible work compared to the global average. Candidates and companies in Italy are indeed slightly above the global average in adopting flexible work. The latest Istat data on employed and unemployed (relating to June 2026) tell us that in Italy in recent months, fixed-term employees, although a minority share, continue to increase. According to the latest survey, there are 2 million 542 thousand (compared to 16 million 491 thousand permanent employees) and they are growing at a faster pace: June over May 2026 recorded an increase of 3.7%, April-June over January-March 2026 of +7%, and June 2026 over June 2025 of +1.3%.

Returning to the Indeed survey, 28% of job seekers identify primarily as flexible workers, compared to 21% in the analyzed markets. At the same time, 56% of companies in Italy employ occasional workers, compared to 53% globally. For job seekers in Italy, the main reasons for seeking flexible work are flexibility (30%) and work-life balance (29%). Companies are aware of this: 31% state that one of the main reasons they hire occasional collaborators is to meet employees’ demand for flexibility and autonomy. This contrasts with the global average, where companies are more motivated by organizational flexibility (25%) rather than responding to workers’ preferences (23%). Among all the countries examined, Italy is among the most skeptical towards AI. 70% of employers believe AI benefits both companies and workers, 5 percentage points below the global average and well below countries particularly favorable to AI such as India (89%) and Mexico (87%). Job seekers are also wary: only 45% say AI is advantageous for both companies and workers. Both groups are also unconvinced of AI’s ability to push high-paid workers towards flexible roles: only 37% of job seekers (compared to 44% globally) and 60% of employers (compared to 68% globally) believe AI is creating opportunities.

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