Untraceable workers, unemployed and fleeing workers. The work and its three ghosts

Immigrants, “big resignations” and a little question about annuities. The rebus of the absurd. But there are also factors that spectra are not: the human factor, the decision of what work is, and a realistic vision

In the post-industrial West (and in its provincial and landinized land which is Italy) no less than one ghosts roam the post-industrial West. The specter of work, in the sense that whoever has it would like to escape from prison, at least according to the theorists of the great resignations; the spectrum of not working, in the slightly more dramatic sense of those who don’t have it and instead need it (but recent Istat data informs us that things are a little better, compared to the worst we always talk about); In the end the specter of work that seeks workers, but is able to find fewer and fewer. Put like this it seems an absurd, insoluble rebus. Maybe it really is. Analysts, economists and various specialists usually try to unravel the skein starting from the threads of macro data: digital and AI steal jobs, the green transition which should be the panacea has difficulty starting, the demographic crisis takes away workers even where there would be work and meanwhile the long memory of Covid and the change of lifestyles lead many to flee. Then there is the famous mismatch between supply, demand and training: in the industrial districts of Lombardy, highly innovative SMEs now “reserve” the best students leaving schools or universities two years in advance of the end of their studies. And it is not certain that they will find (of course, even for young people starting their first job today conditions are rewarded: the paycheck, even if it is good, is not the only criterion). The ghosts are at work and the night is long. In all of this however, there are a couple of factors that spectra are not: the human factor, the decision of what work is, and a realistic vision.