Employment in 2024
The starting point for quantifying the total number of workers involved in audiovisual activities is the data on domestic employment of the so-called audiovisual core perimeter, consisting of the five ATECO 2007 classes:
- 59.11 – Theatrical , video & TV production activities;
- 59.12 – Theatrical, video & TV post-production activities;
- 59.13 – Theatrical, video & TV distribution activities;
- 59.14 – Exhibition activities;
- 60.20 – TV programming & broadcasting activities
These data are expressed in terms of AUW, annual work units3, following the conventions adopted within the national statistics.
This means that a work unit comprises theoretical employees and self-employed workers (divided into self-employed workers and entrepreneurs), who, for example, work for six months a year, thus identifying a single work unit.
To obtain the number of actual workers, quantified as “headcounts,” the dependent and independent units must be converted to full-time workers, and other units that belong to categories not accounted for, such as managing directors, must be added to this count.
Specifically, the calculation process requires a breakdown and integration of the employed units following a different path depending on the categories involved.
The overall direct employment in the audiovisual system (consistent with the Istat data of National Accounting4) is at a similar level to 2023 (-0.3% variation), which compares with a +1.6% figure for the overall Italian economy.
3 The measurement unit of the work volume performed in job positions is calculated by reducing the unit value of part-time jobs, those of on-call workers and temporary workers in full-time equivalents. Basically, the assessment is based on a “theoretical” AWU (Annual Work Unit).
4 As on previous occasions, the data have been revised for the last three years in the light of the new Accounting series
and the release of the new Istat register data.
Starting from the employee count within the core perimeter, it is possible to trace the data back to headcounts (considering, for example, the presence of part-time or short-time work contracts) by going through the Istat coefficients for ATECO (referring to the overall employee collective), and by taking into account the work-unit/job-position ratio5.
5 In national accounts frameworks, job positions (or ’employment positions’) represent the total number of jobs, derived from the sum of main job positions and multiple job positions, independent of the number of hours worked.
With reference to employees, the overall sum touches 46,827 employee-units involved, evaluated in terms of headcounts6.
Another 4,135 employee units should be added to the above number, traced back to headcounts based on ISTAT data from companies not directly belonging to the economic activities perimeter but contracted as ex-ENPALS and from an employment point of view classified as workers within the five economic classes of the core perimeter.
Among independent workers, there are self-employed individuals, whose numbers are growing steadily, especially in professions characterized by marked discontinuity of work, such as acting. In these cases, the activity is often limited to short or occasional periods during the year, to the extent that a single annual work unit can correspond to numerous distinct individuals.
To accurately estimate the number of people involved, data from INPS – formerly Enpals (Observatory for the Management of Entertainment Workers and Professional Sportsmen) is evaluated, in order to integrate self-employed workers with additional units and allow us to retrieve the average number of paid days over the year for each ATECO code and profession and therefore define the headcount.
In 2024, the number of these units increased, with a total of 55,816 self-employed workers calculated in terms of individuals involved.
In addition to these workers, there are 2,806 entrepreneurs and 14,600 administrators (non-entrepreneurs, already included among the self-employed) who are counted only once, even though they may hold more than one office. Both aggregates were obtained from the Chamber of Commerce registers, limited to companies operating within the selected ATECO codes.
This completes the 2024 picture, which includes 124,185 individuals involved in the overall audiovisual system, a figure that represents a positive variation compared to 2023.
6 Employee data comes directly from Istat registers integrated with information drafted from RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. and Istituto Luce-Cinecittà.
Breakdown of job positions within the AV industry in terms of headcounts for the years 2022-2024
| Position | Description | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Employed | Employees working in companies of the core perimeter (based on the archives) | 46,139 | 47,154 | 46,827 |
| Self-employed workers | Self-employed workers in headcounts based on former Enpals data from INPS (Observatory for the Management of Entertainment Workers and Professional Sportsmen) on the average number of paid days during the year, integrated with autonomous workers found in former Enpals data | 51,357 | 54,823 | 55,816 |
| Entrepreneurs | Business Register data within the core perimeter | 2,804 | 2,788 | 2,806 |
| Managing Directors | Business Register data referring to individual units and not to the positions detected in the activities of the perimeter | 14,489 | 14,541 | 14,600 |
| Former Enpals employees outside the core perimeter | Employees in companies not belonging to the core perimeter but contracted as ex-ENPALS and classified from the employment point of view as workers within the economic activities of the perimeter | 3,740 | 4,093 | 4,135 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 118,528 | 123,398 | 124,185 |
Source: Elaboration by Symbola Foundation on Istat, INPS, former Enpals, and Infocamere data
In dynamic terms, the comparison between 2024 and 2023 (also revised due to the changes to the Istat National Accounts framework and archive updates) yields an overall dynamic of slightly increasing growth, equal to +0.6%.
Except for a slight decline in employee numbers, this comparison paints a positive picture across all sectors.
Self-employment recorded the highest change at +1.8%, followed by ex-Enpals employees outside the perimeter (+1.0%, a small %), entrepreneurs (+0.6%), and directors (+0.4%).