Angelo Maria Perrino and Marina Elvira Calderone. Photo: Nick Zonna 2023
Work, Calderone: “DL Cohesion makes 2 billion and 800 million available”
“Two billion and 800 million made available for the labor part of the newly approved Cohesion Decree, plus those for the reconversion of the skills of workers in large companies in crisis”. Thus Marina Calderone, Minister of Labour, in an interview with Messaggero. “They are funds managed by the Ministry of Labor, the result of important choices, consistent with the strategy that I adopted from the beginning and which is giving results – highlights Calderone -. Istat surveys confirm constant growth in employment. We are at a new record of 62.1 percent employed, equal to 425 thousand more workers than last year, with the lowest unemployment rate for 16 years, after the Lehman crisis. It fell in one year from 7.9 percent to 7.2 percent, and the trend is decreasing.”
There are those who argue that the increase in employment depends on the growing economy: for Calderone, “certainly there is a correlation, which among other things does not only concern Italy, but the strategy is to make the most of the opportunities offered by the current moment, do not squander them and direct them. What we are doing is bringing into work the categories that had remained on the margins, those in which we historically have the greatest delays compared to the rest of Europe: young people and women, of any age. “.
In short, claims the minister, “let’s grow good employment: permanent contracts, new businesses, self-employment and freelance professions. The facts are proving us right: stable and self-employed work is increasing significantly, fixed-term contracts are decreasing. When I hear about the fight against precarious work and precarious employment, especially among young people, I tell myself that this is exactly what we are doing. With concrete actions and not words. I am convinced that the constitutional dictate according to which the Italian Republic is founded on work must truly be applied. And not on the subsidy.” Fingers pointed at the Rdc: “The weight of the widespread subsidies without an active policy strategy for employment has had a major impact. Citizenship income has proven to be a failure for the purposes of new employment and escape from poverty.”
And again: “Subsidies, or aid, without close correlation with effective work support measures, do not produce incentives to search for new work. This is what the experience of the Rdc tells us. On the contrary, the introduction of two measures, the Adi (Inclusion Allowance) and the Sfl (Support for training and work), has created the conditions to unlock or reverse this trend”. “Effectively managing the intersection between supply and demand for jobs – Calderone further points out – requires solid involvement of all the actors in the world of work, so that they can share strategies and information through procedures that use the best technologies. This is the experience we are having with the platform for the social and work inclusion system”.