Industrial production grows, but the sector has lost jobs. This is the picture that emerges from the eighth industry report of the CISL. Compared to the worst value recorded in March 2009, in the first few months of 2011 production activity recorded a recovery of around 11%. However, this is 19% lower than the last cyclical high, dating back to the summer of 2007.
Employment, on the other hand, shows a less positive trend. In the last three years, a total of 507.800 jobs were lost in industry, with a slight turnaround only in the first quarter of 2011 (+1,5%). The descent had a different timing sector by sector, the decline first affected manufacturing and then construction. At the end of the three-year period, however, the reduction is approximately the same, -7,2%. The geographical distribution of the trend recovery varies: the best figure is recorded in the center (+2,4%), followed by the north (+1,6%). On the other hand, the result in the south was negative (-0,3%), where there is also a heavy decline in construction (-6%).
