In Italy, in the third quarter of 2016, the overall level of employment it grew again on an annual basis and substantially stabilized at the economic level, but at the same time the surge in vouchers continued. This is what emerges from the first joint quarterly note on employment trends published simultaneously on the institutional websites of Istat, the Ministry of Labour, INPS and Inail.
Il seasonally adjusted occupancy rate was equal to 57,3% in the last two quarters, recovering by almost two percentage points compared to the moment of minimum (third quarter of 2013, 55,4%) considering the last decade (2007-2016), but still far from one and a half points from the peak (second quarter of 2008, 58,8%).
The trend in employment growth was entirely driven by the employee component, both in terms of total employees (+1,8% Istat-labour force) and job positions specifically referred to the industry and service sectors (+3,2% Istat-Oros).
The trend is confirmed both in the data relating to mandatory communications (Ministry of Labour) revised (+543 thousand on average in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the third quarter of 2015) and in the data of the INPS-Observatory on precarious employment referring only to private companies ( +473 thousand job positions as at 30 September 2016 compared to 30 September 2015).
The substantial cyclical stability of total employment is the synthesis of one employee growth (+66 employed, Istat-labour force for all sectors and +77 job positions for the industry and service sectors, Istat-Oros) and contextual reduction of self-employment (-1,5% equal to -80 thousand employed, Istat-labor force), which has returned to decline also in terms of trend (-1,4% Istat-labour force).
The cyclical increase in employee job positions is confirmed by the seasonally adjusted data of the revised mandatory communications: in the third quarter of 2016 there were 2,1 million activations against just over 2 million terminations, which determine a positive balance (activations less terminations) of 93 thousand job positions, after the growth of 48 thousand positions in the second quarter of 2016 and 257 thousand in the first quarter.
With reference to the type of contract, the cyclical increase in employee positions recorded in the third quarter on the basis of the revised mandatory communications is the result of 83 thousand positions Temporary and 10 thousand positions indefinitely. In particular, fixed-term employment positions have returned to growth after the downsizing of the second quarter of 2016.
The growth trend is instead almost entirely attributable to the increase in job positions indefinitely, as evidenced by the data of both the revised mandatory communications (+489 thousand) and INPS (+457 thousand). This increase, particularly significant and concentrated in the quarters between 2015 and 2016, as documented by both the trend and the economic situation, was such as to induce long-lasting carry-over effects also in the following quarters.
As for the voucher, 9 million were sold in the first 109,5 months of the year, 34,6% more than in the same period last year. The vouchers redeemed for activities carried out in 2015 (almost 88 million) correspond to around 47 full-time workers a year and represent only 0,23% of total labor costs in Italy. The median number of vouchers collected by the individual worker who used them was 29 in 2015: this means that 50% of ancillary workers collected vouchers for (maximum) 217,50 euros net.
