IT
PRESS RELEASE
The National Institute for Public Policy Analysis organised the event “Labour shortages: mismatch and training in the current labour market situation” at the Job&Orienta in Verona
INAPP: “WHEN WORK OPPORTUNITIES EXIST, THERE IS OFTEN A LACK OF SKILLS; IN FOUR YEARS THE PERCENTAGE OF COMPANIES LOOKING FOR NEW RECRUITS HAS DOUBLED”.
37% of companies are looking for skilled workers but there is also a lack of low-skilled profiles such as porters and cleaners. Among public incentives, apprenticeships remain the most common way to enter the job market, followed by the ‘Decontribuzione Sud’ and ‘Giovani under 36’.
FADDA: ‘Surely the most difficult challenge – even after the pandemic and with the new phenomena of resigning to seek a higher quality of life – is the matching of labour supply and demand, which requires not only a radical improvement in education and technical vocational training but also an improvement in young people’s attitudes towards certain traditional trades and the conditions of certain job positions‘
Verona, 24 November 2023 – From 2018 to 2022, the percentage of companies applying for new personnel doubled from 9.3% to 18.9%. Despite this ‘entrepreneurial sprint’, the problem of the mismatch between demand and supply of labour remains in the field, especially for certain types of professions: 37% of companies are mainly looking for specialised workers, i.e. specialised technicians in the mining, construction and building maintenance industries, specialised metalworkers and electrical and electronic equipment installers and maintainers. Moreover, there is a shortage of low-skilled profiles: around 21% of the companies applying for new personnel are looking for porters, delivery workers, vehicle cleaners, caretakers, farm labourers, manual labourers or construction or manufacturing personnel. These are some of the findings of the new RIL (Rilevazione Imprese Lavoro) survey carried out by the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies (INAPP) through a structured questionnaire addressed to a sample of 30,000 Italian companies. Lack of skills, candidates and frequent resignation are symptoms of a labour shortage trend which exists in many countries but is particularly pronounced in Italy, especially concerning young people and certain sectors. The event organised by INAPP in Verona at the Job&Orienta fair explored the role that professional training can play in the labour market.
“It could be said that, in Italy, the labour supply is severely limited compared to the demand, both for lack of adequate skills and for widespread unwillingness to do certain jobs‘ ‘ explained Professor Sebastiano Fadda, president of INAPP. “Certainly the most difficult challenge – even after the pandemic and with the new phenomena of resigning to seek a higher quality of life – is the matching of labour supply and demand, which requires not only a radical improvement in education and technical vocational training but also an improvement in young people’s attitudes towards certain traditional trades and an improvement in the conditions of certain job positions. The strengthening of job orientation services is extremely important to solve all these critical issues.”
The conference organised by INAPP was attended by the Director General of the Institute, Santo Darko Grillo, Claudio Gagliardi, Deputy Secretary General of Unioncamere, Angelo Candido, Head of the Trade Union Service of Federalberghi, Manuela Robazza, President of CIOFS-FP and Federica Celestini Campanari, Extraordinary Commissioner of AIG, the Italian Youth Agency.
At the event, it was also emphasised that many institutional interventions can be adopted to tackle the mismatch and the shortcomings encountered, which must be designed and implemented in a structural manner and for the long term. Employment incentives are among the instruments that could be leveraged to facilitate the matching of supply and demand. Although there are still relatively few companies that make use of them (less than 30% – source RIL2021), the apprenticeship contract is the most widely used and certainly the most appropriate for resolving the critical ‘labour shortage’: 44% of companies make use of it.
Through this contact, there are several economic, regulatory and social security benefits provided, in addition to compulsory training, specific to the type of enterprise and skills needed. Other incentives, such as the Decontribuzione Sud (used by 29.4% of companies) and the Giovani under 36 (used by 26.1% of companies.) have had little impact on the critical issues emerging on the supply side.
President Fadda argues that: ‘’while some incentives exist, there is a need to strengthen job orientation services. These can empower young people to build and achieve their life projects, starting from choosing the right education path and vocational training courses in line with labour market demands and the emergence of new professions, and finding suitable employment.’’
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