Slowing growth and fragile production: the Tuscan economy in mid-2025

The first half of 2025 presents a mixed picture for Tuscany. The regional labor market continues to grow in terms of total employment, but the pace of growth is slowing and new hires between January and July are still declining. Despite greater stability in employment relationships, with a further increase in permanent contracts and a simultaneous decline in more flexible forms of employment, there are signs of fragility linked to the heavy use of extraordinary layoffs, especially through solidarity contracts, in a context where the use of other wage supplementation tools is declining. On the production side, Tuscany is affected by an uncertain international situation and a national industrial trend that has only recently returned to slightly positive values. Regional manufacturing production continues to be weaker than the main Italian industrial areas, weighed down by the difficulties of the fashion sector. Exports at current prices are holding up better than production, mainly thanks to the extraordinary contribution of the pharmaceutical sector and the first signs of improvement in some key sectors: foreign sales of clothing, knitwear, and footwear are back in positive territory, while losses in leather and leather goods are easing, accompanied by a favorable trend in machinery, driven in particular by general-purpose machinery. In summary, the economic situation in the first half of 2025 is still marked by growing sectoral heterogeneity and a slowdown compared to the recent past.

Keep reading