By comparison, the unemployment rate in Veneto is 3.7%, and that of Italy reaches 10.6%, owing to the different social and economic situation in Southern Italy. The "work participation rate", i.e. technically speaking the employment rate, obtained by dividing the total number of employed persons by the population number of 15 years of age and over, reaches 51.5% in the province of Treviso, against 43% at national level. Of the total number of employed persons, 50% work in the industrial sector, this percentage exceeds the regional rate already by 10 percentage points, and by nearly 20 percentage points if compared to the national figure. Excelsior Information System, developed by the Association of the Chambers of Commerce (Unioncamere) and by the Ministry of Labour to monitor the companies' staff requirements, is a further statistical source of employment figures. Excelsior draws information from a representative sample of companies, excluding those activities which are connected with the Civil Service.

If, on the one hand, the total employed figure does not correspond to ISTAT's official data, on the other hand this survey allows a cross-reference of the employment figures with further detailed variables such as company sectors and sizes. From this point of view, the predominance of the engineering industry clearly emerges in the provincial context, in terms of employed persons: if we namely consider together upstream metal processing industries, machinery and electrical appliance sectors, structural work industries, means of transport and precision instruments, the percentage of employed persons reaches 23% out of the total figure estimated by Excelsior for industry and services in the year 2000 (nearly 46,000 employed out of 201,776). 63% of employed persons in the machinery and electrical appliance sectors are concentrated in companies with more than 50 employees.

The second most important sector in the province of Treviso, in terms of number of employed persons, is the textile, clothing and footwear sector or, more briefly, the fashion compartment: over 26,000 operators, i.e. 13% of the total employed figure surveyed by Excelsior; of these 26,000 employed persons, 7,200 work in big companies with over 250 employees. Considering 100 as the total number of persons in the province working in companies with over 250 employees, the Fashion sector accounts for over 20%. Only the service sector for companies (mainly credit institutions) covers a higher share of employees in this specific bracket. With 12.8% of employed persons, woodworking and furniture companies follow immediately, with 41% (25,700 employed persons) falling within the 10-49 employees segment.

Commerce and commercial business activities altogether exceed 27,000 employed persons (with a share of 13.5% on the total figure); there follows the building sector, with 14,000 employed persons. Regarding these latter two sectors, building and commercial business activities, more than half of the employed persons work in companies with fewer than 10 employees: 44% of the employed figure falls within this latter category specifically for the commerce sector. Finally, the advanced tertiary sector (credit, insurance companies, advanced services for companies, services for the individuals) is gradually absorbing an important share of the labour market in the province of Treviso, though this market is still revolving around the manufacturing industry.

With 27,500 employed persons the advanced tertiary sector represents 13.7% of the total employed figure surveyed by Excelsior. Looking at professional and skills requirements, the highest employment growth rates can indeed be found in these sectors, with almost 6% including out movements, against 3.6%-3.9% in the manufacturing sector.