On Friday morning 14 June, the data relating to the first quarter of 2024 were presented to the technical group of the Labor Market Observatory, established within the provincial Work and Training control room.
In the first quarter of 2024, we can estimate, from the balance between hirings and terminations in the province of Bergamo, a growth of almost five thousand employee positions compared to the levels of a year ago. The extent of the trend variation is progressively reducing compared not only to the peaks reached in the post-Covid rebound, but also to the performance of the last few quarters.
Hiring (33,072) is decreasing (-4.1 percent on an annual basis) while terminations (30,520) remain at the same levels as in the first quarter of last year, positive by 2,552 units between January and March 2024, but the figures they are well below the same 2023 period
The balances of the individual employment centers are also positive, except for Clusone (-80): Albino 147, Bergamo 1,307, Grumello 205, Lovere 102, Ponte S. Pietro 380, Romano 68, Trescore 209, Treviglio 188, Zogno 26
The growth rates of permanent contracts, which had been particularly lively throughout last year, are slowing down: the relative outgoings are increasing in the face of a slight contraction in income and permanent transformations are slowing down.
The number of temporary assignments continues to decline – a sign of a decline in industrial labor demand – while new entries into apprenticeships are not enough to compensate for those leaving due to termination or transition to permanent employment.
The downsizing of fixed-term relationships, which began in the second half of 2022, ends in the first quarter of 2024 due to lower stabilizations and consistent flows, less conditioned by seasonality than what happened in the past, temporary starts in trade and in tourist services.
From a sectoral point of view, there are signs of a slowdown in employment in some business services activities – such as warehousing and transport support activities – and a new rise in employee positions in construction.
Employment in Bergamo is therefore holding up, despite the lower demand for labor from industry (-11.5%), also thanks to an unemployment rate of just 2.9% at the end of 2023, and even the unions are not they say they are still worried, but are waiting to see the data for the second quarter of 2024 to understand if we can talk about an actual loss of employment. There is no doubt, however, that the picture of the latest Labor Report is chiaroscuro, with clouds on the horizon which will hopefully soon evaporate.
