Survey updated on July 24, 2026. The data mentioned are a photograph of the moment and should be read as such.
In February, this observatory had more than 1,700 active searches for communication managers and concluded that the Communication Manager was becoming a stable organizational function. Five months later, demand did not grow linearly. Something more interesting has happened. She specialized.
The big picture, a market that pulls the brakes
The Bulletin of the Excelsior Information System by Unioncamera and the Ministry of Labor photographs about 568 thousand contracts scheduled by Italian companies for July 2026 and about 1.5 million in the quarter that comes to September. Compared to the same month of 2025, labor demand fell slightly by 1.1 percent, rising to 2.6 percent over the quarter.
It's not a crash, it's a prudent brake. And within this slowdown, the service sector remains the main driver of demand.
However, there is a second issue that deserves attention. The difficulties in finding concern 42.6 percent of open positions. The main cause is the lack of candidates, which accounts for 26.3 percent, followed by inadequate preparation for the required skills, which accounts for 12.3 percent.
Translated. Four out of ten positions remain difficult to fill not because there is a lack of people, but because companies cannot recognize them.
What happens to communication figures
On the date of this survey, one of the main advertising platforms in Italy reported 163 active positions attributable to the Communication Manager profile and 1,590 positions that recall the Communication Specialist profile.
The dry number alone says little. On the other hand, reading the ads says a lot, and here three clear movements emerge.
The first movement concerns geography. The positions are no longer focused only on Milan and Rome. In the last week, research has appeared in Bologna, Imola, Bari, Pesaro, Trebaseleghe, Cutrofiano, Montemesola, Castellammare di Stabia. Professional communication is taking root in territories, in medium-sized businesses, in third sector realities, in private healthcare facilities, in farms that want to tell their stories outside their borders.
The second movement concerns the content of the role. An announcement for Communication Manager today brings together, in the same position, the editorial plan, the institutional communication, the coordination of suppliers and agencies, the management of the communication budget, the monitoring of performance. It's no longer a creative job. It is a government function.
The third movement concerns the entry threshold. In the vast majority of ads, there is an explicit request for documented experience, ranging from two to five years depending on the level. Companies are no longer asking for digital enthusiasm. They are asking for demonstrable professional continuity.
The current trend in three words
If we were to summarize July 2026 in three steps, these would be it.
From job to function. Communication leaves the marketing area and becomes an autonomous garrison, with its own objectives and its own responsibility.
From creativity to measurement. Reporting, analytics, KPIs, performance dashboards occur in advertisements with a frequency that did not exist two years ago. Those who communicate must be able to account for what they produce.
From declaration to verification. And this is the decisive step. In a market where 12.3 percent of positions remain uncovered due to inadequate preparation, saying that you are a communicator is no longer enough. You have to be able to prove it so that someone else can control it.
Here comes Register
Digital communication is a profession not organized into orders or colleges. It doesn't have a register, it doesn't have a state exam, it doesn't have a barrier to entry. It is a precious freedom and at the same time it is the reason for its fragility.
Because when anyone can define themselves as a communicator, the market stops believing in definitions. So he asks for years of experience, portfolios, references, informal tests, multiple interviews. The cost of this mistrust is borne by two individuals. The serious professional pays for it, forced each time to rebuild their credibility from scratch. And the organization pays for it, which still can't find the people who exist.
Law number 4 of 14 January 2013 has provided for exactly these situations a precise instrument, the certificate of professional qualification issued by professional associations. Not a register, not a constraint, not a permit. An element of transparency towards the market.
The Register of Digital Communicators was created for this reason. It makes available and verifiable what remains today entrusted to self-declaration. It certifies the training course, the continuous updating, the adherence to a code of ethics. Transform a private expertise into public data.
Why sign up now
Because the time is now. In a phase in which companies hire prudently, the selection becomes stricter and the advantage is not of those with the most conspicuous profile, but of those who are easier to recognize.
If you work in digital communication, if you manage content, channels, relations with the public, if you build a reputation for an institution or a company, you already have the substance. What is often missing is the public form of that substance.
The Register serves to bridge this gap. It doesn't make you a professional. It makes you a recognizable professional.
And in a market that leaves almost half of the open positions uncovered in July 2026 because it can't identify the right people, being recognizable is not a detail. It's the difference.
Sources. Unioncamera and Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, Bulletin of the Excelsior Information System, employment forecasts for July 2026. Direct survey of active announcements on the main personnel search platforms in Italy, 24 July 2026.
Methodological note. The active positions detected on ad platforms include heterogeneous profiles and may include roles where communication is a required skill and not the main subject of the position. The figure should be read as a trend indicator and not as a census.