In May employment growth in Veneto has slowed, but Rovigo is a story in itself. Compared to May last year, the regional balance between new contracts and terminated contracts went from 20,709 to 18,514. Result of a -0.9% drop in hiring. And if Padua recorded -0.2%, Treviso was -1.5%, Venice was -3.5% and Vicenza was -3.6%. Verona, on the other hand, is positive, +1.8%, but Rovigo does better in percentage, with +3.4% of hirings, although Belluno does even better, with +6.2%. In Polesine last month the employment balance was positive with 916 contracts, which not only are well above the 698 of May 2023, but also exceed the 845 of May 2022.
This is what emerges from the latest analysis on employed work in the private sector in Veneto created by Veneto Lavoro. Which is not limited to the monthly budget, but broadens the horizon to the first five months of the year, comparing them with the similar period of the previous three years. Looking again at Polesine, the glass is half full, because with a January-May balance of 3,281 more contracts, it exceeds the 3,032 of the first five months of 2023 but is slightly below January-May 2022, when there were 3,313. Different trend compared to the Veneto region as a whole, with 63,032 contracts this year, less than the 65,531 in 2023, but more than the 58,105 in the first part of 2022.
From an overall point of view, Veneto Lavoro is known as “after the counter-trend data in April, however, signs of a slowdown were also observed in May of growth, confirming a labor market in the process of stabilizing after the positive phase recorded in the post-pandemic period. In the first five months of 2024, the trend of the Veneto labor market remains positive, thanks to an increase of 63 thousand employee jobs and a volume of hiring in line with the particularly high one in 2023.
In the month of May the Venetian labor market recorded a positive balance for 18,500 job positions employees, which brings the overall employment balance since the beginning of the year to 63 thousand jobs. A result slightly lower than last year but higher than that observed in 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic. Hiring is slightly decreasing, -1%, while the overall volume of terminations is in line with that of 2023, confirming a stabilizing labor market after the collapse observed in the pandemic period and the subsequent particularly high growth, which has affected the last two years”.
Looking at the sectors, tertiary and agriculture still show positive dynamics, greater difficulties are recorded in the industrial sector, which in the last year and a half has shown a progressive reduction in the rate of growth. The employment balance of the sector in the first five months of 2024, although positive for 7,700 employee jobs, is in fact significantly lower than the 10,600 in 2023 and even halved compared to the 14,400 in 2022. Negative trends are observed in particular in the metalworking sector, which in The last month recorded a minimal increase in employment, in the fashion sector, i.e. textiles, clothing and footwear, which lost around 500 jobs in 2024 and recorded 20% fewer hirings compared to the first five months of 2023. Application for work also decreased in the wood and furniture sectors, -8.4%, in the tanning sector, -8.2%, and in the food industry, -4.3%. The metalworker maintains a positive balance of 1,600 jobs, but much lower compared to the previous two years: +4,000 in 2023 and +5,500 in 2022, with a drop in hiring of around 20%.
The only manufacturing sectors going against the trend turn out to be the eyewear industry with 400 more jobs and +14% in hiring, which explains the performance of Belluno, the pharmaceutical industry, with a hundred more jobs and the +16% in hiring, and utilities. in the first five months of 2024, 3,700 positions were gained in the sector, 300 more than in 2023, 7% more hirings than last year.
