In 2020, despite the pandemic, the productivity of the average Italian worker increased beyond all expectations, exceeding the European average and champions such as Germany. Faithful to the vulgate that the Italians want to give their best in emergencies, here we are to detach our German colleagues "a lot", and even take the sprint with respect to the French and Spanish. This is what can be read in the Istat report on productivity which in the year of Covid recorded an increase in labor productivity in Italy of 1.3% compared to a + 0.4% in Germany, a decrease in 1.1% of France, a -2.8% of Spain and an EU27 average of 1.2%. Perhaps - but the report does not say so - the credit is also to be attributed, at least in part, to agile work. "In 2020 - explains theIstat - labor productivity increased markedly in the financial and insurance activities sector (6.3%), in information and communication services, in the education, health and social assistance sector (5.7%) and, to an extent more contained, in Construction (2.8%) ".
The figure stands out against an Italian system marked by a labor productivity with rather slow growth (+ 0.5% on average, in the years 2014-2020), and in any case equal to France, higher than Spain (0.0), but significantly lower than Germany (+ 1.0%) and the EU27 average (+ 1.2%) of the same period.
Not as well as the productivity of labor did the capital which - again in 2020 - saw its productivity drop by 11.2%. The low efficiency with which the capital factor is used in the production process is known (-1.1% per annum in the 2014-2020 period), but a double-digit thump, it would deserve some reflection.
Still on the job front,
Istat gives other good news,
reporting for the third quarter of this year an increase in the number of employees: of 121 thousand units (+ 0.5%) compared to the previous quarter, and an increase of 505 thousand units (+ 2.2%) compared to the third quarter of 2020. Hours worked also increased, marking a + 1.4% compared to the previous quarter and a + 4.1% compared to the third quarter of 2020. Overall, the employment rate rises to 58.4% while the unemployment rate drops to 9.2%.