Construction sector, the Italian supply chain holds steady and looks beyond the PNRR: investments on the rise

One fifth of the new jobs created in Italy over the past five years comes from the construction sector. With 3.3 million workers and more than 350,000 additional jobs in the 2020–2025 period, the supply chain confirms itself as a pillar of the national economy and looks ahead with confidence: for 2026, investment growth of 5.6 percent is expected, following the modest decline of 2025. This is what emerges from a preview of the “Federcostruzioni Report 2025,” currently being prepared, presented by the President of Federcostruzioni Emanuele Ferraloro during the press conference unveiling the new edition of SAIE, the trade fair dedicated to the construction sector, scheduled from October 7 to 10, 2026, at BolognaFiere.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN OVERVIEW

After three years of strong expansion that made it possible to recover and surpass pre-2008 crisis levels, the building and infrastructure construction sector experienced a stabilization phase in 2025, with a limited overall decline (minus 1.1 percent), driven in particular by the drop in residential construction (minus 15.6 percent), but offset by the strong acceleration of activities linked to the PNRR (plus 21 percent). The “National Recovery and Resilience Plan” remains the main driver of the sector: to date, 16,000 construction sites are active, two thirds of which are already nearing completion. However, the sector is already looking beyond the PNRR: between European and national funds, approximately 120 billion euros are available for the sector until 2033, a resource that, according to Federcostruzioni, can ensure the stability and consolidation of the supply chain even beyond the Plan’s deadline. The full picture of the supply chain will be presented in the Federcostruzioni Report, which will be unveiled during the October edition of the fair.
In this context, public-private partnership (PPP), discussed during the press conference, emerges as a strategic lever to strengthen the country’s investment capacity. According to the DIPE Annual Report (Presidency of the Council of Ministers), in 2024 alone, 62 new PPP projects were awarded for a total value of approximately 11 billion euros, bringing the total value of monitored contracts to 29.5 billion euros. Between 2018 and 2024, PPP tenders accounted for about 10 percent of investment procedures, with an average annual value of 15 billion. This trend confirms that collaboration between the public and private sectors is an increasingly adopted path for delivering high-quality infrastructure and services.