Despite the three-year period of the pandemic, Basilicata is in fifth place for the increase in employment, with seven thousand more workers in four years. Power Exploit with the increase of 5,800 units
“It is a particularly positive moment for our labor market. Both for the historical record of employed people and for the increase in the number of those who have a permanent employment contract and, finally, also for the increase, especially in the last year, of staff with high levels of qualification ”. This was revealed by the research office of the Cgia – the Association of artisans and small and medium-sized enterprises of Mestre – adding that 8 out of 10 employees have a permanent job, adding that “in recent years at a territorial level, the Southern regions have recorded the most significant increases in employment”.
BASILICATA AND THE EMPLOYED BOOM
In this sense, Basilicata also did its part, recording – compared to the pre-Covid period of 2019 – an increase of 3.5 percent equal to an increase of seven thousand workers. A figure that places the region in fifth place in Italy among those that have achieved the most significant percentage increase in the country. At the provincial level, Potenza recorded a real boom, with a positive percentage of 4.9, equal to 5,800 more working units compared to 2019. The contribution of the province of Matera was smaller, which recorded 1.1 percent more, equal to an increase of 800 units.
EMPLOYED, NOT JUST BASILICATA: THE OTHER REGIONS AND PROVINCES
Compared to 2019, Puglia recorded a notable increase of 6.3 percent (more 77 thousand units), followed by Liguria and Sicily both with +5.2 percent (the first with more 31 thousand units and the second with +69 thousand) and Campania with +3.6 percent (plus 58 thousand units) precede Basilicata in the special ranking.
At the provincial level, however, it is Lecce with the most 16.5 percent (+36,500 units) that has achieved the greatest percentage increase. Followed by Benevento with +12.4% (+10 thousand units), Enna with +11.2% (+4,800 units), Frosinone with +10.9% (+16,600 units) and Ragusa with +9.4 % (+10 thousand units). However, not all of Southern Italy has been able to count on positive results. Among the last places in the provincial ranking are in particular Southern Sardinia and Syracuse where the employment contraction for both was minus 4.3 percent (the first with minus 4,900 units and the second with -5 thousand), Caltanissetta with -5 .2% (-3,400 units), Sassari with -6.8% (-12,600 units) and, finally, the Marche province of Fermo closes the ranking with -7.9% (-6 thousand units).
In any case, in 2023, explains the Association of artisans and small and medium-sized enterprises of Mestre, “the number of employed people in Italy reached 23.6 million units, 471 thousand more than in the pre-Covid period, of which 213 thousand they affected the South which was the geographical division that recorded the highest percentage increase in the country (plus 3.5 percent). And the forecasts also tell us that the overall stock of employed people is destined to grow further, reaching 24 million workers by 2025”.
CONTRACTS AND STAFF
Also last year, continues the CGIA, “we reached an incidence of 84 percent of those who have a fixed-term employment contract (15.57 million out of 18.54 million) on the total number of employees. If we compare the number of workers in 2023 with a permanent job with the same data as in the pre-pandemic period, the increase was 742 thousand units (plus 5 percent). Qualified personnel is increasingly required. Finally, the number of highly specialized/qualified workers increased in the last year by 5.8 percent (more than 464 thousand), equal to 96.5 percent of the new jobs created in 2023; while compared to 2019 the variation remains positive (+2.3 percent), but more contained than the previous year (+192 thousand) with an impact of 40.7 percent on the new jobs created in the last four years” .
CRITICALITIES
But the CGIA also underlines that many critical issues still remain: “Despite the fact that we can count on these significantly important results, there are still some critical issues that we struggle to overcome. The main one – explains the Mestre association – remains the low employment rate; among the 20 countries of the Euro Area, Italy brings up the rear with a “miserable” 61.5 percent, compared to a Eurozone average of 70.1 percent. The trend recorded by self-employed workers should not be overlooked either – adds the CGIA -; compared to 2019, they fell by 223 thousand units (minus 4.2 percent), despite the fact that in the last year there was a slight sign of recovery of more than 62 thousand units, with a positive percentage of 1.3 percent”.
