In Italy (and in the rest of Europe) the shortage of manpower is due to too low wages: the study by Etuc- Corriere.it

Young too choosy and less and less inclined to work in the evenings and on weekends? Professions that Italians no longer want to do? Contrary to these and other narratives, if there are sectors in Europe that struggle to find the manpower they need, essentially because they pay an average of 9% less compared to the sectors in which it is easier to hire. what emerges from an analysis published by European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on the occasion of its 15th statutory congress, scheduled in Berlin from Tuesday 23rd to Friday 26th May.

Thirteen EU countries examined by the survey: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Holland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and of course Italy. Well, our result is the one with the widest gap between the average hourly wages of the various sectors: 18.47 euros in those that generally boast full staff, 14.30 in those that, on the contrary, complain of a lack of personnel. A difference of 4.17 euros in absolute terms and by over 22% in percentage terms. Followed – data in hand – Luxembourg (from 29.39 to 25.23 euros, -14%), Germany (from 19.91 to 16.65 euros, -16%), the Netherlands (from 20.37 to 17. 88 euros, -12%) and Greece (from 9.76 to 8.25 euros, -15%).

That being soand, it is easy to understand why from January 2019 to January 2022 the number of vacant positions in the most distressed Italian sectors increased by almost 1%, while in the richest markets it remained almost unchanged. Under this prorow the black jersey goes to the hospitality and restaurant sectorwhich in our latitudes offers an average salary of 9.85 euros per hour (and – not surprisingly at this point – complains about the lack of 250,000 waiters and cooks). Overall, according to the latest Excelsior bulletin produced by Anpal and Unioncamere, in this month of May the gap between supply and demand for labor in our latitudes reached 46.1% (+7.8% compared to last year), a rate that reaches the 47% if we consider only young people.

A decent wage is good for workers, it’s good for employers and it’s good for Europe – commented the general secretary of the ETUC on the sidelines of the publication of the report Esther Lynch –. Together with inflation, low wages are causing a loss of purchasing power, while labor shortages are hurting economic performance and public services. The study clearly shows how low wages are one of the main factors driving Europe’s recruitment challenges.