ANCONA – One in ten makes it. Having a stable employment relationship in the Marche seems to be a chimera with just 11% signing a permanent contract in 2023 despite the positive growth in the number of employed people and the collapse of the unemployed. This is what the Uil Marche Research Office highlights in analyzing the INPS Precariat Observatory data, according to which in 2023 the Marche companies hired 218,374 people with a lower average of stabilizations than that of Central Italy and the rest of the country. «In the Marche – he explains Antonella Vitale, manager of the Market and Work Area of Uil Marche – the share of permanent contracts out of the total of those activated is clearly below the country average: our region is 14th in terms of incidence of permanent contracts on new employment relationships. The incidence of fixed-term contracts on the total is also lower than the national average: the Marche region is 12th in the use of this form of contract. These data are the best answer to those who say that it is not possible to find young workers in the Marche region.”
In detail, of the total new hires, permanent hires are a small percentage: only 24,832 and are distributed as follows between the 5 Provinces: in the Province of Ancona there were 7,421 permanent hires, in the Province of Ascoli Piceno 3,249, in the Province of Stopped 2,833, in the Province of Macerata 5,431 and finally in that of Pesaro-Urbino 5,898 hires. The type of contract most used is the fixed-term contract, with 85,948 hirings, of which 25,362 in the Province of Ancona, 13,602 in that of Ascoli Piceno, 9,317 in the Province of Fermo, 18,453 in Macerata and 19,214 in the Province of Pesaro – Urbino, followed from the intermittent contract, with which 39,687 workers were hired (10,183 in Ancona, 6,979 in Ascoli Piceno, 3,242 in Fermo, 8,219 in Macerata and 11,084 in Pesaro-Urbino), from the seasonal contract, which the companies used for the hiring of 28,063 people, divided as follows: 9,667 in Ancona, 5,120 in Ascoli Piceno, 2,534 in Fermo, 3,492 in Macerata and 7,250 in Pesaro-Urbino and, finally, from the supply contract, with which 28,444 people were hired, of which 11,251 in Ancona, 4,534 in Ascoli Piceno, 1,377 in Fermo, 5,566 in Macerata and 5,716 in Pesaro-Urbino.
«The conditions dictated by the labor market – he adds Claudia Mazzucchelli, general secretary of Uil Marche – are oriented towards poor work, below the levels of other regions and with a more accentuated precarious nature. We need real and targeted policies from the Marche Region and from entrepreneurs. The company must invest and believe in its staff, improving its management policy and applying adequate salary compensation and stabilizing fixed-term contracts.”
In this logic, productive and organizational innovations can also be introduced with a more incisive use of new technologies, which must serve to improve the quality of work and not replace it. It is essential to build an alliance between school and the world of work. Higher education and training must be encouraged with policies capable of reducing school dropout, enriching university courses also to attract young people from other regions or foreign countries. But to make choices, planning is necessary, a shared idea of development is needed and territorial governance that outlines objectives and knows how to involve all the “actors” of the territory. We must invest in skills and focus on dual apprenticeships as a fundamental channel of entry into the world of work as well as in training for updating and qualification, which must be in line with company planning. If nothing is done, the situation will not change.
Yet there would be plenty of work in the Marche region. However, there is a lack of professional figures sought by companies, who are finding it increasingly difficult to find the profiles suited to the needs of the moment. In the next quarter, 41,240 hires are expected in the Marche region but only one in three involves young people under 30 because companies, more than educational qualifications, are above all looking for staff who are already tested and ready to be placed at work. In any case, newly hired workers will only be able to count on fixed-term contracts, while permanent hires will only concern 22.8 percent of workers. «In our opinion – continues Vitale – the real reasons for the difficulty in finding staff are, first and foremost, low pay. The average annual salary in the private sector in the Marche is just over 20 thousand euros. Based on the 2022 INPS data, it emerges that young people under 30 and women receive on average 30% less than a man”. According to the data of the Excelsior Information System for the next quarter, hiring is expected for38.8% in the industrial sector and 61.2% in services (6,640 less than the same period of a year ago) distributed as follows: 10,540 in the province of Pesaro-Urbino, of which 39.6% in industry and 60.4% in services; 12,820 in Ancona of which 34.3% in industry and 65.7% in services; 7,400 in the province of Macerata of which 47.5% in industry and 52.5% in services; 6,360 in the Province of Ascoli Piceno, of which 33.1 in industry and 66.9 in services and 4,130 in Fermo of which 42.2 in industry and 57.8 in services.
«Companies tend to see work as a cost to be reduced – points out the Uil Marche Study Center – We believe that these choices are unacceptable: they can give immediate advantages to the company but offer few guarantees for the future, also because by doing so many young people, with a high rate of skills, they choose to emigrate to other countries or regions to find a job suited to their ambitions. And this is exactly what happens in our Region. In practice, we invest in professional training but then we lose professionalism. Another problem is the precariousness considering that the contracts offered are fixed-term contracts, which in fact they are confirmed as the most widespread form in the Marche region (equal to 85,948 hires in 2023 according to data from the INPS precarious employment observatory). But not only. The perception of work has changed and is no longer all-encompassing but a determining element to the extent that it is reconcilable with social and family life. It is essential to build an alliance between school and the world of work. Higher education and training must be encouraged with policies capable of reducing school dropout, which is still high in the Marche, enhancing university courses also to attract young people from other regions or foreign countries. But to make choices, planning is necessary, a shared idea of development is needed and territorial governance that outlines objectives and knows how to involve all the “actors” of the territory. An opportunity not to be missed, also to experience this synergy, can be represented by the four ITs in the Marche region, which can put young people in close contact with the most advanced production chains of our manufacturing districts. We must invest in skills and focus on dual apprenticeships as a fundamental entry channel into the world of work as well as in training for updating and qualification, which must be in line with company planning.”
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