Jobs are the government's first priority. “But it is unrealistic to think that interventions of a tax and social security nature can reabsorb unemployment“. We need production to grow again. The Minister of Labour, Enrico Giovannini, illustrated in hearing before the Senate Labor Commission the interventions in the study of the government on employment, social safety nets and safeguarded.
Giovannini spoke of an audience of "underemployed" which includes about 3 million unemployed and another 3 million "inactive". The youth unemployment rate is 38,4%, there are 635 officially unemployed young people.
As for the Fornero reform, the minister hinted at "limited and targeted changes" (in particular on fixed-term contracts and apprenticeships and to enhance school-work alternation). The package of measures being studied by the Ministry of Labor also includes the old-young generational relay and tax and social security benefits to encourage new contracts.
The minister illustrated the data relating to the monitoring of the trend of the main types of contracts: in the last months of 2012 the collapse of collaborations and intermittent work continued; fixed-term contracts and apprenticeship contracts have increased slightly, permanent contracts have decreased and “employment terminations” have increased. In the fourth quarter of 2012, collaborations recorded a reduction of 9,2% on a quarterly basis and of 25,1% on a trend basis. For fixed-term contracts there is a +3,7% conjunctural. This is why, according to Giovannini, “one must be very careful touching a reform that is finally producing a series of intended effects”.
