In the Marche region, the use of the Redundancy Fund increased in the first quarter of 2024, especially in the industrial sector. This is the data that emerges from the analysis of the national Uil on INPS data which indicates, for the first quarter of 2024 in our region, 5,963,369 hours of redundancy fund and 104,184 hours of solidarity fund. Comparing the first quarter of 2024 with the same period of 2023, it can be seen that in 2024 a total of 6,057,553 hours of social safety nets were authorized against 4,590,495 hours in the first quarter of 2023 with an increase of 32.2%. Going into specifics, we note, in the first quarter of 2024, an increase in integration of 35.1% compared to the same period of 2023 (4,407,157 hours authorized in 2023 and 5,953,369 in 2024), determined by the growth of 54.4 % of the use of the ordinary redundancy fund and partially offset by the 31.1% decrease in the extraordinary redundancy fund.
Analyzing the provinces in detail, only Ancona highlights a decrease in the use of redundancy payments: in fact, in the first quarter of 2024, 1,621,598 hours were authorized compared to the 1,730,372 hours authorized in 2023 with a variation of – 6.3%. In the province of Ascoli Piceno, the hours of redundancy payments authorized in the first quarter of 2023 were 991,163 while in 2024 they were 1,705,825 with an increase of 72.1%; in the province of Macerata in the first quarter of 2024, 995,473 hours were authorized compared to 531,303 hours in 2023 with an increase of 87.4%; finally, in Pesaro-Urbino in the first quarter of 2023, 1,154,319 hours were authorized while in 2024 the hours of redundancy payments authorized were 1,630,473 with an increase of 41.2%.
As for the data relating to the distribution of hours in the individual branches of activity in the Marche region, industry absorbs most of the number of authorized hours. In fact, 5,756,782 hours were authorized with an increase of 44% compared to the same period of 2023, during which 3,999,121 were authorised, while the hours authorized in the first quarter of 2024 in the construction sector significantly decreased (- 40.6%) and trade (-72.9%). Despite a market recovery, it is clear that companies are taking their time, not activating restructuring processes, because the crisis is essentially determined by exogenous factors, wars, energy crisis, difficulty in finding raw materials, but also great uncertainty in the automotive sector, which also involves plastic and rubber molding companies from the Marche region, market dynamics that still see stagnation in the internal market.
An endogenous factor, such as the size of companies, is now also evident as a determining element of the crisis. In fact, a smaller average size of companies corresponds to a lower innovative capacity, which continues to remain one of the main elements of structural weakness of the regional manufacturing system. The situation in the artisan sector is also worrying. If we examine the data from FSBA, the Bilateral Solidarity Fund for Crafts, i.e. the craft redundancy fund, we note that there is an important growth trend in the use of these hours which sees a 55% increase in gross amount reported in 2023 (9,476,762.00 euros) compared to 2022 (6,100,035.00 euros). A situation that does not tend to improve because if we analyze what was reported in the first four months of 2024, the FSBA resources used already amount to 5,111,561.00 euros, almost as much as was used for the whole of 2022.
«From the data – comments Claudia Mazzucchelli, general secretary of Uil Marche – we need to quickly move on to the facts, immediate interventions are needed to protect the survival of the local business system and guarantee the desired, but structured and quality, employment recovery, starting with a serious and shared plan for industrial policies capable of relaunching the economy. We ask regional policy to take immediate action, involving social and employer partners, implementing effective real development policies that help companies that intend to invest in the future of the Marche which cannot ignore the overcoming of the poor, precarious and poorly paid working conditions that today afflict the Marche by distancing young people, an irreplaceable factor in the growth of a territory”.
