The occupation in Italy restarts. Istat records record numbers in March: we have now returned to the pre-Covid period. Employment increased by 81,000 units compared to February and is 804,000 more than in March 2021, with a boom in women and young people. However, half of the new jobs are completed. Overall, people with a job return to exceed the threshold of 23 million by 40 thousand units, a step away from the figure before the January 2020 pandemic, when it stood at 23 million and 54 thousand.
The employment rate rises to 59.9% (+0.3 points): a record level since the beginning of the historical series, above all thanks to the growth of women (51.2%). Comparing the first quarter of 2022 with the previous one, there is an increase in employment equal to 0.6%, for a total of 133 thousand new workers, while since the beginning of 2022 the increase is 170 thousand units.
Growth is driven by women with 85,000 more employed than in February and 442,000 more than March 2021. Men lost 4,000 in February and recorded +362,000 units compared to last year. The unemployment rate in March drops to 8.3% with a drop of 0.2 points on February and 1.8 points on March 2021, practically at the levels of 2011. The unemployed are just over two million: – 203 thousand women and – 209 thousand men. The inactivity rate drops to 34.5% (-0.2%). Compared to March last year, inactive people decreased by 747,000 units. Temporary employees in March rose to 3,159,000, the highest level since 1977: there was a growth of 19,000 units compared to February and of 430,000 on March 2021. In total, however, there are 14 permanent employees. , 9 million with an increase of 103 thousand on February and of 312 thousand on March 2021.
“After Covid we find ourselves with the same number of employees, but with a less guaranteed and more precarious situation”, is the comment of the president of Istat Gian Carlo Blangiardo on Sky Tg24. “Insecurity is a legacy that we carry from Covid and that we hope to recover because if from a quantitative point of view employment is raising its head, the problem remains that of the quality of work, which is increasingly precarious”. For women there is a “recovery”, given that the female component was one of the most affected by the emergency triggered by the epidemic. The Institute of Statistics does not release the monthly data on the sectors of activity but it is probable that the recovery concerned services such as tourism, commerce and catering, sectors with high female employment.
On the other hand, self-employment is slowing down: – 41,000 units in March (-62,000 for the year) and, according to Confesercenti, there are 215,000 fewer places since the start of the pandemic. Confcommercio along the same lines: “The recovery of employment only concerns employees”.
Uil is worried about the amount of temporary workers: «It is good that the number of unemployed has decreased, but we cannot be surprised if it will rise again when workers who have temporary jobs today will return to lose their jobs tomorrow. It is not enough to read the numbers only in their quantitative component, nor to have any job to say that you have a decent one ”, underlines the confederal secretary Ivana Veronese.
For Tania Scacchetti of the CGIL the increase in fixed-term contracts is “very serious” and thus spurs the government: “The priorities must be the fight against precariousness and the growth of wages. It is no longer acceptable that work is founded on flexibility and on a model of economic and productive development centered on the compression of costs and rights ”. –