“Pnrr at risk, lack of doctors, engineers and ICT technicians” – Corriere.it

In the first nine months of the current year, out of almost 420,000 new hirings expected on average, 170,000 (40.3%) are difficult to find; in the same period of 2019, the same share stood at 28.2%. Now the lack of specialized personnel risks delaying the Pnrr. This is the alarm raised by the Cnel, chaired by Tiziano Treu, with its annual report on the labor market. It is estimated that between 2022 and 2026 there will be a need for 4.1-4.6 million new hires, depending on the scenario. The most requested professionals will be those related to the green/sustainability field (in a transversal way as regards all sectors and professions) and then the workers in the social welfare sector such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists. Qualified professionals in health and social services will be essential for the reorganization and implementation of the territorial health care network, among the objectives of the Health mission of the PNRR. Finally, the specialists in the technological field will be crucial: in mathematical and computer sciences, ICT technicians, engineers and technicians in the engineering field. For these figures – says the report – it can be hypothesized that, if the supply is not increased, the problems in finding them on the labor market will grow and there may be slowdowns in the implementation of the PNRR missions due to the lack of workforce.

More employed, thanks to the decline in population

For almost a decade now, the Italian population has been decreasing and this is also true for the specific segment of the population of working age (15-64 years), which has fallen below 37.5 million residents (at the beginning of the 2000s there were over 39 millions). The fall in unemployment is also due to this. Over the last twenty years, the impact of demographic decline on labor supply had been partly offset by the increase in labor market participation, especially of women.

Nearly a thousand national contracts

Of the 946 collective bargaining agreements registered in the Cnel archive, 208 (22%) are signed by categories associated with the CGIL, CISL and/or UIL and cover 97.1% of workers. Those signed by Ugl, Cisal, Confsal or Ciu (excluding the National Collective Labor Agreements that the first three organizations sign by adhesion or separate signature with CGIL, Cisl and/or Uil) are 407 and cover 6.6% of workers. Finally, various trade unions not represented at the Cnel conclude 347 contracts which represent only 0.3% of employees. In short, there are many contracts and by now they are close to a thousand, but the majority concern few or almost no workers. These are agreements that seem to serve more to the organizations themselves to legitimize their existence.

Only 86,000 RDC earners worked in the last year

Of the 3.4 million citizens’ income recipients, only 660,000 are required to stipulate the employment agreement and have actually been taken care of by the Employment Centres. Of these, only 13 percent (about 86,000) have work experience in the last year, 71% have at most eighth grade. In short, they are very fragile individuals with low levels of schooling. Cnel expresses concern for the difficulties and delays encountered in the implementation of the plan for the strengthening of employment centers and active labor policies. For income earners, but not only.