Strengthening the skills of human capital, protecting wages from inflation and protecting household income: these are the guidelines that the European Commission suggests to the Member States to limit the loss of jobs and avert the social repercussions of the transformations underway.
In the so-called “Autumn package” of the European Semester for the coordination of economic policies of the 27 presented on Tuesday 22 November, the Commission also takes stock of employment and warns that if 2021 was about to end with a labor market recovering from crisis caused by the pandemic, a few weeks after the closure of 2022 various sectors – manufacturing, hotels, restaurants and administrative support services – are not yet out of the tunnel. The causes are known: the changed market conditions, the increase in energy prices, the disruption of the supply chain and, more generally, the uncertainty due to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
The need for continuous training
The Commission therefore continues to encourage the Member States to push the accelerator on the double transition, green and digital, a transformation that will already have an impact on the world of work by changing the set of required skills. It is therefore important that States invest in worker training policies in order to guarantee the acquisition of new skills throughout the working life. Both in order to maintain one’s job position over time, and to facilitate the transition from one job to another, in an increasingly fluid market. Particular attention must be paid to the categories most at risk, ie young people, women, the disabled and migrants.
A positive signal comes from the employment rate of young people which increased in 2021, causing the percentage of those not studying or working – NEETs – to drop from 13.1% to 11.7% (the percentage of Italian NEETs in 2020 was at 25%). While women are still eight times more affected by the phenomenon of unpaid work – including care work – or are forced to accept part-time positions.
Protect wages from inflation
Another recommendation from the Commission to the Member States concerns the protection of wages from inflation. According to the EU employment commissioner, Nicolas Schmit, “wage developments should protect the purchasing power of wage earners, especially for low and minimum wages, while reflecting socio-economic conditions and preserving competitiveness”. From the Joint Employment Report, an annual review of major social and labor market developments in the EU, it emerges that to date the Member States have managed to counter the dramatic erosion of household income. However, already in the second quarter of 2022 real wages only fell by an average of 3.3% compared to the same period of 2021. To protect the purchasing power especially of low-wage workers, Brussels points the way to collective bargaining and wages minimal.