On the day when work is at the center of all discussions and is celebrated in the streets the CGIA of Mestre photographs the situation on the basis of data provided by Istat until February. The South really stands outhowever between lights and shadows, which records the most significant increases in employment. Compared to 2019, Puglia increased the number of employed by 6.3 percent (+77 thousand), ahead of Liguria (+31 thousand) and Sicily (+69 thousand), both with +5.2 percent. Then come Campania +3.6 (+58 thousand) and Basilicata with +3.5 (+7 thousand). Puglia is first in Italy for percentage.
Lecce at the top
At the national level. always in percentage, the province with the increase in new employees is Lecce, with 36,500 more workers, equal to a percentage of +16.5 percent. Behind the other Apulian women: there are, with positive numbers, Foggia (+8.7 equal to 14,200 workers), Bari (+4.8, 20,600), Bat (+4.7, 5300), Brindisi (+3.1, 4000). The only discordant note, last in the ranking, is Taranto which marks the minus sign with 4,100 fewer employed equal to a share of 2.6 percent. Other cities in the South in terms of growth are Benevento (+12.4, 10 thousand), Frosinone (+10.9, +16,600).
Salaries still low
Compared to April 2023, the CGIA reports, in February 2024 the number of employed people in Italy increased by 292 thousand units. As a result, Labor Day is celebrated by around 300 thousand more workers. The critical issues concern the low employment rate: among the 20 countries of the Euro area, Italy is last with 61.5 percent against an average of 70.1 in the Eurozone and equally Italian salary levels are on average lower than other EU countries.
Skeptical unions
The general secretary of the CGIL Puglia, Gigia Bucci he adds that «it emerges from the latest data available a Puglia made up of 93 percent of precarious contracts, of which 33 percent concern the activation of contracts that have a duration of just over a month and 25 percent of contracts, always precarious, with a duration of just over three months”. Yesterday, April 30, it started the collection of signatures also in Puglia for the referendum campaign on the four questions also signed by the centre-left mayoral candidates Vito Leccese and Michele Laforgia and by the regional councilor Lucia Parchitelli of the Democratic Party. The initiative aims to overcome precariousness, increase safety at work and protect citizens from illegitimate dismissals.
«For work I sign my name – adds Gigia Bucci – it is evident that in this precarious condition any individual, whether man or woman, whether young or not, is not in a position to think or plan a minimum of existence. There is an abuse of fixed-term contracts and there is a government that wants to make them the rule, the normal working condition within companies. We say no and one of these referendums is linked to overcoming precariousness.”
It focuses on training and prevention, as well as on public and private investments, on stable, safe and correctly paid work, the general secretary of CISL Puglia Antonio Castellucci. He points out that «it is still unacceptable that, due to the misalignment between job supply and demand, we have to witness the constant flight of young people from Puglia and the many skills formed during school and university studies». For Gianni Ricci, secretary of the regional Uil, «on the day in which we celebrate workers, we reiterate the centrality of work as the engine of rebirth, of economic and social recovery of this country. And the theme at the center of all our battles is safety in the workplace.”
. The unions: «But there are still many precarious workers»){kind=link}