Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between labour market attainment and individual social capital, referring in particular to the relevance of relational and kinship networks in the process of job matching. After a brief reconstruction of the main characteristics of the Italian labour market, as well as of the peculiar occupational regime that it is realised, the role of individual's social belongings are deepened by means of a specific survey carried on a sample of newly hired people in Milan. The research shows how, in a labour market characterised by closed employment relations, strong ties play a very important role in predefining individual first entry into their occupational career, and subsequently during their work history. By this way, the research falsify Granovetter's thesis of the strength of weak ties.