Share of total employment in each sector in Italy 1950-1973

From 1950 to 1973, Italy's social and economic structure underwent its largest transformation in modern history. Following the Second World War, the Italian government's restrictive policies that prioritized agriculture and limited both migration and urbanization were scrapped, and mass industrialization took place. Not only did this result in millions flocking from the countryside to cities in search of work, but this coincided with the expansion of welfare, healthcare, and education systems, which provided further employment opportunities in service industries. Increased industrialization and consumerism also resulted in the growth of the retail sector (included in services), and all of these factors contributed to the drastic drop in agricultural employment. Despite agriculture's share of total employment dropping by 80 percent over these 23 years, mechanization and investment meant that agricultural output in the 1950s and 1960s generally grew as the industry became more efficient. Over these decades, Italy's status as a poor and underdeveloped, rural nation changed, as it emerged as one of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies, even becoming the fourth-largest economy in the world for a brief period in the 1980s.