A March and to April, when the pandemic raged with maximum intensity, more than half of the Italian companies (51%) requested layoffs connected to the coronavirus, the so-called Cig-Covid. In all, the measure involved 40% of employees in the private sector. The data is contained in a report produced by the Bank of Italy on the basis of INPS data.
The analysis shows that the average savings achieved thanks to Cig-Covid is around 1.100 euros for each employee present in the company (regardless of the incidence of workers in Cig).
Smaller companies they mainly used the Cig-Covid as an exception, saving on average 3.900 euros in the two-month period thanks to the reduction in working hours.
The largest companies active in services, on the other hand, mainly benefited from the ordinary Covid allowance, saving almost 24 thousand euros, slightly more than manufacturing companies (21 thousand euros).
Every worker in Cig-Covid has suffered, on average, an hourly reduction of 156 hours, 90% of the monthly full-time working hours (equal to 173 hours in March and April), losing about 27,3% of their gross monthly income.
From a territorial point of view, the share of companies that made use of the Cig-Covid was fairly homogeneous at the regional level: 45% in the North-East, 48% in the North-West, 52% in the Center and 55% in the South.
The differences between macro-areas – although not particularly large – can be explained by the heterogeneity of firms as regards the sector of activity: in the South, in fact, there is a clear prevalence of companies active in the hotel, restaurant, construction and non-food retail trade sectors, i.e. the sectors that have suffered the most due to the lockdown.
(The analysis is based on the microdata present in the INPS archive and refers to all the wage integration tools envisaged to deal with the Covid health emergency).
