After the stalemate phase in March, the number of contracts that Parma companies expect to activate in these weeks is returning slightly positive, even if in the coming months there will be a new slowdown compared to the same period in 2023.
In fact, there are 3,550 new contracts expected in the province of Parma during the month of April; the data – which emerges from the analysis of the Research Office of the Emilia Chamber of Commerce on data from the Excelsior System – appears to be slightly growing (+0.3%) compared to the month of April 2023. According to forecasts, however, the the data will instead be negative in the April – June quarter, which should close with -2.2% compared to the same period last year, with a number of new contracts standing at 11,770 units.
The companies that will activate new contracts are 17% of the total, and their attention will be directed to young people for 33% of the new contracts.
Meanwhile, the difficulties in finding the figures desired by entrepreneurs are increasing, reaching 51% of cases.
The proposed contracts are 78% represented by employee work (22% permanent, 49% temporary and 7% other types, all growing) and 22% by ‘flexible’ forms (administration/temporary and collaboration contracts /VAT numbers/others).
The first sectors of activity for the new contracts scheduled in the current month of April are trade (440 new contracts and +57.1% compared to the same period in 2023), accommodation and catering services and tourist services (420 new contracts, + 7.7%) and the food, beverage and tobacco industries (with 390 units, -11.4%), transport, logistics and warehousing services (390 new contracts, -18.8%) and personal services ( 290 new contracts, -32.6%).
The 3 most requested professions in absolute terms are workers in catering activities (350 units, 52.9% of cases difficult to find), sales workers (270 units, 27.4% difficult to find) and motor vehicle drivers (220 units, with 61.6% of the figures difficult to find).
The most requested qualifications concern professional training qualifications or professional diplomas, with 1,340 new contracts (37.7% of the total); followed by secondary level education diplomas, with 1,010 units (28.4% of the total), while for those leaving compulsory school there are 700 new contracts available and for the university level and the ITS Academy there are stands at 500 units.
As far as professional figures are concerned, Chamber of Commerce data attest that in the managerial sector and with high technical specialization, the demand for commercial distribution technicians is unsuccessful in 75% of cases, while that of engineers is unsuccessful in 74.5% of cases . Health technicians are also difficult to find, in 73.7% of cases, and analysts and specialists in application design are also difficult to find, in 66.7% of cases.
Among employees and in commercial and service professions, it is more difficult to find beauty care operators (76.5% of cases), qualified professionals in health/social services (59.3% of cases), qualified professionals in personal services (54.5% of cases), and operators and employees in catering activities (52.9% of cases.
As regards specialized workers, the greatest difficulties in finding are found in the search for specialized workers involved in the construction and maintenance of building structures (in 69.9% of cases, difficult to find), workers involved in the assembly of industrial products (69.8% of cases), of workers specialized in the installation/maintenance of electrical/electronic equipment and of workers assigned to automatic and semi-automatic machines for metalworking (both, in 66.1% of cases, difficult to find).
