Italian labor

Watch out for too much talk of “great resignation” in Italy. While in the rest of the world, especially in the United States, the narrative of job flight is well established, in our country the situation seems quite different. Taking a snapshot of the Italian labor market were the latest Inps data: in the first half of 2021, 1.8 million citizens signed their resignation letters. These are numbers that are certainly unprecedented in Italy, but they should be read and interpreted with some caution, given that in 2021-it should be remembered-we were coming out of the pandemic emergency and the labor market was moreover frozen by the freeze on layoffs(Il Sole 24 Ore).

Post-pandemic recovery

Indeed, two factors seem to account for these numbers. The Inps added that more than 600 thousand resignations in the first half of the year actually concern “The full recovery of the 2020 missed resignations,” while at the same time layoffs have returned to growth. On the other hand, there is the economic rebound, as one million goodbyes are accompanied by a 26 percent increase in hiring, a 74 percent growth in contracts, and a positive balance that equals 946,000 positions, two-thirds of which were recorded in June alone (Courier).

• Short work grows, only one in a hundred contracts last more than a year(Courier).

Challenges of the future

With the labor market regaining more dynamism after the pandemic emergency, it would therefore be more correct to speak of an outplacement of workers, rather than a flight from the permanent job. In recent months, new job opportunities have opened up, especially in the sectors that had suffered most from the lockdowns caused by the pandemic, such as catering or professional services, and people have thus gone in search of better professional opportunities. It will now be necessary to see how hard the economic slowdown will be in the coming months, with rising rates, energy prices and businesses struggling with utility bills. Here are the dossiers with which the new government is expected to contend.

• Draghi government leaves record employment, but labor market still fragile(Linkiesta).