in Calabria in 2024 good forecasts on the employment front

CATANZARO Signs of optimism on the employment front in Calabria. «According to the forecasts for the whole of 2024 formulated by the companies participating in the Invind survey conducted by the Bank of Italy future employment levels are expected to grow further slightly»: this is underlined by Catanzaro branch of the Bank of Italy in the annual report on the economy of Calabria, with reference to 2023. The report, published in recent days by Courier of Calabriadedicates a specific chapter to the topic of work in Calabria, highlighting how at a regional level the trend last year was comforting: «In 2023, employment in the region continued to increase. According to data from the Istat labor force survey, the number of employed people grew by 1.9 percent compared to the previous year. Although smaller than that recorded for Italy and the South (2.1 and 3.1 percent respectively), this further increase – claims the Bank of Italy – allowed bring employment levels back to those of 2019. The employment rate rose to 44.6 percent, a higher value than the pre-pandemic one also due to the decline in the working age population. However, the gap from the Italian figure remains particularly large and stable at almost 17 percentage points.” With reference to the sectors, for Bank of Italy «the increase in the number of workers was fueled solely by services; employment in construction decreased slightly after two years of strong expansion, while the reduction in agriculture intensified further. Overall, the growth concerned both the self-employed and employed components and both genders, but for men and the self-employed, employment has not yet recovered the 2019 levels. Distinguishing those employed by country of birth, the positive change only concerned Italian workers compared to a slight reduction in foreigners, whose share has grown in recent years although remaining limited.”

The improvement in employment levels in subordinate work – adds Bank of Italy – «is also confirmed by the data from the INPS Observatory on precarious employment: for the private sector in 2023 the new employment positions created in Calabria (hires net of terminations) were approximately 11,000, a higher value than that recorded the previous year. In particular, despite the recovery in fixed-term jobs, the net creation of jobs continued to be fueled by extensive use of permanent contracts, thanks also to the transformations of temporary contracts activated previously. In addition to employment, the intensity of use of the labor factor has also grown: the hours worked per week showed a greater increase than in the country as a whole and the average value per employee stood at a level in line with the Italian one; this trend also depends on the increase in the number of full-time workers compared to a reduction in part-time workers (3.2 and -4.1 percent, respectively)”. The Bank of Italy then writes – «is associated with these dynamics a decrease in salary integration tools: during 2023 in Calabria, almost 5.2 million hours were authorized between wage supplementation fund (CIG) and solidarity funds, approximately 20 percent less than in 2022. In terms of equivalent employees, these measures affected 0.7 percent of employed workers in the region (1.3 percent in Italy). Signs of recovery in the labor market are also confirmed in reduction in the use of Naspi (New social insurance for employment). The number of applications for access to the allowance presented in Calabria was approximately 77,000, almost 6 percent less than in 2022; on average, Naspi’s requests concerned just under 20 people for every hundred employed employees, a value similar to the pre-pandemic one”. As mentioned, the future leads to optimism: for Bank of Italy “according to the forecasts for the whole of 2024 formulated by the companies participating in the Invind survey conducted by the Bank of Italy, future employment levels are expected to show further slight growth”. (approx)

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