In the first two months of 2023 theoccupation in Italy, at higher rates than before the pandemic and the increase concerned exclusively the permanent component. Services are driving the demand for labour. While female employment has grown but still few stable jobs. And it slows down the fall in unemployment with wide territorial differences. They are the main results of the note "The labor market: data and analysis" (March 2023 edition), jointly prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, the Bank of Italy and the National Agency for Active Labor Policies (Anpal).
Employment will start to grow again at the beginning of 2023
After the slowdown in the last part of 2022, employment accelerated in the first two months of the year. Between January and February they were created over 100 seats net of terminations, about a third more than in the same period of 2019, before the pandemic. The demand for labor was mainly driven by services. In particular, 22 thousand new jobs were observed in tourism, equal to a fifth of the total positions created in the first two months of 2023.
Also in theindustry, the dynamics of employment continued to strengthen, benefiting from the drop in energy prices. The construction show substantially stable trends.
Leap of the permanent contract, the fixed-term contract recovering
In the two-month period, employment growth has so far been concentrated in the component in time undetermined fixed-term employment remained substantially stable while apprenticeships recorded a drop of about 8.000 units. However, in the coming months the recomposition of the workforce towards stable jobs could be less intense: the share of fixed-term contracts, on total hirings, has slowly started to increase again.
The gender gap is narrowing, but still few stable jobs
After being penalized more than men during the pandemic crisis, since the end of 2021 thefemale occupation has grown to historically high levels. The high incidence in the two-year period 2021-22 of the demand for labor in the sectors of commerce, tourism and personal services, where the share of employed women is higher, has contributed to this dynamic. In the last two years, however, women have occupied only a third of permanent positions.
Curbs the fall in unemployment: strong territorial disparities
In 2022 the number of unemployed measured by declarations of immediate availability (DID), it decreased by 80 thousand units, less than the drop in 2021 (-300 thousand). Also due to the slowdown in the demand for labor in services observed in the second half of the year. They also emerge large territorial differences. Among the larger regions, the decline in administrative unemployment eased in Campania and stopped in Lombardy, Lazio, Sicily and Emilia-Romagna; while it intensified in Veneto. In the second half of 2022, the decline in unemployment related to obtaining a job (about a fifth less than in the same months of 2021) was associated with an increase in the number of workers who subscribe to a monthly new DID (almost 10% more than the previous year.
In line with Istat data, which signal a widespread growth in participation rates, the flows of new entrants into the state of unemployment remain substantial: they have increased in all age groups and above all in the Noon.
