Italy / Hiring in recession

Bioplastics group Mossi & Ghisolfi has hired 50 people a year for the last five years – not bad when Italy’s unemployment has risen steadily to a 13-year high above 11 percent.

Now a world leader in its field, the Piedmont-based firm is so specialized that, to meet booming demand, it is even wooing home talented emigrants ready to take jobs at much lower pay than they could earn in Germany or the United States.

“Our business is all about technology and research. Italy is trying to compete with Vietnam on costs. That won’t work. But Italy is the Vietnam of research. Our researchers are cheap, and that’s the way forward,” says group CEO Guido Ghisolfi.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Analysis: Italian firms innovate to fight recession | Reuters.