IT
PRESS RELEASE
26.09.2023 – WORK, INAPP: ‘ITALY AMONG THE LAST IN EUROPE FOR ACTIVE POLICIES SPENDING’
Only 0.22% of GDP, about one third of the European average, and a 39% drop from 2008 to 2020.
Fadda: ‘Labour policies in Italy are very weak, especially in the area of so-called ‘active’ policies. A comparison with other European countries on the expenditure allocated to labour policies shows a considerable gap to the advantage of ‘passive’ policies: 2.6% of GDP in Italy against a European average of 2 percent. While on ‘active’ policies, Italy only spends 0.22% of its GDP against a European average of 0.61%. The weakness of active policies manifests itself above all in employment services. These, in addition to suffering from the paucity of funding, have great limitations in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.”
Benevento, 26 September 2023 – Italy ranks last in Europe for spending on active employment policies, with an expenditure percentage of 0.22% of GDP, against a European average of 0.61%: about one third. As a benchmark, Spain (one of the countries that spends the most) stands at 1.03% of GDP, almost five times Italy’s. Over the years, our country has increasingly de-emphasised investment in these measures, so much so that from 2008 to 2020 the negative balance was -39%. A figure, incidentally, mitigated by the increase in investment made at the start of the pandemic crisis (+8% from 2019 to 2020), as was the case in almost all European countries.
This is what emerged today during the study day ‘Active labour policies and the role of employment services’ organised in Benevento by Inapp (National Institute for Public Policy Analysis) in collaboration with the University of Sannio and the Province of Benevento.
The data, which analyses the trend in spending on labour market policies between the two major crises of 2008 and 2020, were processed by Inapp with reference to the classification of labour market policies carried out by Eurostat.
“Labour policies in Italy show great weakness, especially in the area of so-called ‘active’ policies’, said Professor Sebastiano Fadda, president of Inapp. ‘A comparison with other European countries on the expenditure allocated to labour market policies shows a considerable gap to the advantage of ‘passive’ policies: 2.6% of GDP in Italy against a European average of 2%. While on active policies, Italy only spends 0.22% of its GDP against a European average of 0.61%. But the weakness of active policies manifests itself above all in employment services. These, in addition to suffering from the paucity of funding, have great limitations in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.”
Upon closer inspection, the percentage of Italy’s expenditure on labour market policies as a whole appears to be in line with the EU average (2.83% of GDP against 2.86%). In fact, Italy saw a greater increase (86% against the 73% average of the other EU countries). Nevertheless, rather than the total amount of expenditure, it is precisely the distribution of these resources that makes our system peculiar. For instance, spending on ‘services’ (the third item that, together with active and passive policies, makes up the classification drawn up by Eurostat in which overall labour market policies are broken down) is almost imperceptible in our country: it is among the lowest in Europe with only 0.26 per thousand of GDP, against a European average of 2 per thousand.
“The increase in invested resources is not enough” Fadda concluded, “for employment services to fulfil their task of effectively matching labour supply and demand. To this end, it is necessary to identify and tackle other causes that undermine the functionality of the services. In particular, three aspects need to be considered (especially in the Southern regions): the clarity of the functions that the Employment Centres must perform in the dynamics of local labour markets; the technological equipment and organisational efficiency of the Centres; and, finally, the suitability of the skills of the Centres’ operators. All policy makers and actors operating in the labour market should set up an integrated network within the framework of labour policies.”
The study day was useful to explore various topics, including the role of employment centres in the context of active labour policies, the network as an organisational prerequisite for effective functioning of employment services, and the development of skills for employment service operators. Finally, the focus on the Mezzogiorno made it possible to reflect on the criticalities and opportunities of the action to strengthen employment services in a labour market in distress, especially for young people and women, which nevertheless does not lack in growth prospects.
In addition to Fadda, the programme of the study day included speeches by Nino Lombardi (President of the Province of Benevento), Clemente Mastella (Mayor of the Municipality of Benevento), Gerardo Canfora (Rector of the University of Sannio), Santo Darko Grillo (Director General of Inapp and National Coordinator for the European Year of Skills), Luisa Corazza (Director of the research centre Inland Areas and Apennines of the University of Molise), Stefania Terlizzi (General Manager of the Employment Agency of the Autonomous Province of Trento), Simonetta Cannoni (director of the Tuscany Regional Employment Agency of the Tuscany Region).
The round table on the prospects for strengthening employment services in southern Italy, co-ordinated by Massimo Resce (INAPP office in Benevento), was attended by: Antonio Marchiello (Councillor for Productive Activities, Labour, State Property and Assets of the Campania Region), Silvia Pellegrini (Director of the Department of Labour, Education and Training Policies of the Puglia Region), Nino Lombardi (President of the Province of Benevento), Luca Bianchi (Director General Svimez), Pasquale Lampugnale (Vice President of Small Industry Confindustria for Economy, Credit, Finance and Taxation and coordinator of the Scientific Advisory Committee), Gaetano Natullo (Professor of Labour Law, Director of the Demm Department of the University of Sannio).
For more information:
Giancarlo Salemi – INAPP President Spokesperson (347 6312823)
Attachemnts
Download the press release