After the slowdown in the last part of 2022,
employment grew in the first two months of 2023 at a faster rate than before the pandemic
.
According to the latest Bank of Italy-Ministry of Labor and Anpal Report, in fact, after the sharp decline in the second half of 2022, in the first 2 months of 2023 the demand for labor in the private non-agricultural sector returned to growing at a rapid pace: over 100,000 jobs created, net of terminations.
The increase is greater than a third compared to the same months of 2019, prior to the pandemic and concerned exclusively the permanent component.
In detail, in terms of contracts, the fixed-term type remained substantially stable and apprenticeships recorded a decrease of approximately 8,000 units.
The recomposition of employment towards more stable forms of employment, noted Bank of Italy, the Ministry of Labor and Anpal, which has been underway since last year, could be less intense in the coming months.
The conversion rate of fixed-term positions into permanent contracts has stabilized over the past eight months;
the share of new temporary contracts in total hiring has started to increase again.
Services support the increase in employment, but manufacturing also resumes growth.
The demand for labor was mainly driven by services, which had recorded overall low growth rates in the last part of 2022. In particular, 22,000 new jobs were observed in tourism, equal to a fifth of the total positions created in the first two months of 2023. In industry in the strict sense, after the slowdown of last summer, the dynamics of employment continued to strengthen, also due to the recovery of the more energy-intensive sectors which, in the last part of 2022, benefited from the drop in energy prices.
Construction shows substantially stable trends.