Work, in 2022 the employed will increase (but in 88% of cases they are men) – Corriere.it

Of the 334,000 employed, 88% are men. In December 2022, compared to the previous year, the extra jobs occupied by men are 296 thousand against the 38 thousand occupied by women. Compared to November, when 27,000 workers were lost in one month, there was an increase of 37,000 workers in one month, 19,000 women and 18,000 men. The employment rate, according to Istat, is increasing but also in this case there are differences between men and women. The female employment rate stands at 51.3%, with an increase of 0.1 points over November and 0.5 points over December 2021. The male employment rate is 69.6%, with an increase of 0.1 points over November and by 1.6 points over December 2021. There are 9,763,000 women employed compared to 13,452,000 men.

The generation gap

The generational gap is added to the gap between men and women. Employment from November 2022 to December increases for men, women, permanent employees, the self-employed and for all age groups except for young people aged between 25 and 34. Temporary employees are also decreasing in this age group. The number of people looking for work is growing (+0.1%, equal to +2 thousand units compared to November) among women, aged 25-34 and over 50. The total unemployment rate is stable at 7.8%, the youth rate drops to 22.1% (-0.5 points). The decrease in the number of inactive people between the ages of 15 and 64 (-0.4%, equal to -54 thousand units) involves men, women and all age groups. The inactivity rate drops to 34.3% (-0.1 points).

Price-wage gap

In 2022, the intense contractual season led to the implementation of 33 collective agreements and the growth in contractual wages was +1.1% on average for the year. The gap between the dynamics of prices – measured by the HICP – and that of contractual wages has risen to 7.6 percentage points, reaching the highest value since 2001, the first year of diffusion of the harmonized price indicator at European level, he explains the Istat. The monthly index of contractual wages in December 2022 recorded an increase of 0.1% compared to November and of 1.5% compared to December 2021; in particular, the tendential increase reached 1.5% for employees in industry, 0.6% for those in private services and 2.8% for public administration. In detail, the highest trend increases concern the activity of firefighters (+11.7%), ministries (+9.3%) and the National Health Service (+6.1%); no increase for retail, private and public pharmacies and hotels. GDP, according to Istat preliminary estimates, decreased by 0.1%, after seven consecutive quarters of growth. This is a reversal compared to the +0.5% cyclical trend in the third quarter.

Collective agreements

At the end of December 2022, underlines Istat, the 47 national collective agreements in force for the economic part concern 50.4% of employees – around 6.2 million – and correspond to 51.2% of the total salary. Contracts awaiting renewal at the end of December 2022 fell to 26 and involve around 6.1 million employees, or 49.6%. The average waiting time for renewal, for workers with expired contracts, fell from 28.2 months in January 2022 to 24.8 months in December 2022. During the fourth quarter of 2022, 3 contracts were implemented in the private sector (stone , gas and water private and municipal companies and insurance companies), while for the public sector we note the implementation of the contracts for the sector of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (three-year period 2016-2018), Regions and local autonomies, the National Health Service and the School sector , Education and Research (all three relating to the three-year period 2019-2021). During the same period, no contracts expired.