This paper presents an application to the Italian labour force of the British SOC(HE)2010 classification for graduate occupations, thereby creating a statistical tool for exploration of the Italian graduate labour market. In order to achieve this goal, the classification is replicated, using methodology that differs slightly to take account of differences in existing Italian data, to construct SOC(HE)-Italy. This classification allocates each of the official 800 Italian occupational categories to four groups distinguishing between ‘graduate’ and ‘non-graduate’ groups on the basis of their relative levels of knowledge and skills requirements. It is then validated using the Rilevazione Continua sulle Forze di Lavoro (RCFL ISTAT) data and the AlmaLaurea (AL) data and used to analyze changes in the Italian occupational structure that occurred before and after the financial crisis that took place in 2008. We also compare the Italian structural trends in the graduate labour market with similar trends in Britain. This analysis reveals that the decrease in the utilization of highly qualified labour in the Italian labour market started before the beginning of the ongoing recession, which contradicts the findings of analyses reported in earlier literature
