At the beginning of 2022, in Italy, the growth of female employment it has almost zeroed. It says so a study by the Ministry of Labour, the Bank of Italy and the National Agency for Active Labor Policies, emphasizing that the figure was affected by the decline in the demand for labor in some sectors where the presence of women is greater, such as tourism and trade, particularly penalized by the new ones fears of contagion and the restrictions associated with the diffusion of the variant Omicron. The positive trend in manufacturing and construction, on the other hand, continues to offer employment opportunities, which however are aimed above all at men.
“The slowdown in the first months of 2022 affected both the Centre-North and the South with heterogeneous trends among the different areas of the country – reads the note – In central and northern areas, the growth of industry supported the demand for labour, but the resurgence of infections penalized winter tourism, concentrated in mountain areas. In some southern regions, characterized by a lower industrial vocation, the expansion of manufacturing has not compensated for the weakness of tourist flows in the first two months of the year”.
In Basilicata, Campania e Puglia “employment balances were lower than the already modest ones in the same period of 2021. In Calabria e Sicilia the growth in net activations was driven by the strong acceleration in construction, which accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the total jobs created, almost double the national average”.
Furthermore, the study shows that, in the first two months of 2022, employee work continued to grow, but at less intense pace than during 2021. Compared to the last months of 2021 fixed-term hirings are slightly reduced (which drove the 2021 recovery) while they remain constant those for an indefinite period.
Net of seasonal factors, between January and February the layoffs they were average 40.000 per month (there were almost 50.000 before the pandemic); they returned to pre-pandemic levels in services, while remaining contained in industry.
Thanks to the improved employment prospects overall for 2021, both the number of those who have found a job and the number of people who have declared to the employment centers that they are immediately available for work. There growth of declarations of availability for employment it has also affected the more educated segments of the population.
In January 2022 approximately 100.000 new individuals registered as unemployed, declaring that they are immediately available to work; of these, about 15.000 were university graduates.
