Last year the relationship between the number of public employees e the population Italian stood at 5,7 %, against an average of the last 40 years equal to 6,1%. The Italian Public Accounts Observatory writes it in a recent article, underlining that that of 2021 is "a low value", even if "only moderately below the average (-6%)".
In any case, to stay in the wake of the data recorded between 1980 and 2021, last year we would have needed 240 more public workers, as if to say that state workers "should have been 3,60 million work units per year, instead of 3,36 million", continues the Observatory.
To close the gap, 180 hires are needed by 2026
However, the gap is destined to narrow in the next few years due to the negative demographic trend of our country: considered expected population decline four years from now, the study continues, "if we wanted to return in 2026 to the same ratio between employed and population observed in the average for the period", the number of public employees should rise to 3,54 million in 2026, Namely 180 thousand units more compared to today.
If, on the other hand, only permanent employment relationships are considered, an even more significant increase in the workforce would be necessary to obtain the same result, equal to 220 workers (from 3,2 to 3,42 million).
Which path will the government choose?
It is too early to say whether the government will decide to move in this direction, ie aiming to recover the gap that has opened up in comparison with past decades. “It is not clear what the government's medium-term plan is in terms of public employment – underlines the Observatory again – but there are indications that the net number of hires may be high, although the digitization of the public administration can lead to personnel savings".
In particular, the most important signals are two: lo release of the turnover and the large number of civil servants who will retire In the next. Furthermore, "net hirings have already begun, targeted for now - concludes the Observatory - to meet the needs of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr)". In this context, however, it is almost always a matter of fixed-term employment.
