Economy - published on 16 April 2024
Source: Unioncamere press office
Rome, 10 April 2024 – More than 446 thousand employment contracts (lasting more than one month or on open-ended contracts) were planned by businesses in April and more than 1.5 million for the April-June quarter, with a slight increase of around 3 thousand units compared to April 2023 (+0.7%) and a drop of more than 46 thousand units on the corresponding quarter (-3.0%). Outlining this scenario is the Bulletin of the Excelsior Information System, produced by Unioncamere and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.
Small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees plan 64.5% of the total recruitment planned for April, while medium-sized enterprises in the 50-250 employee class plan 18.9% and medium-large enterprises with more than 250 employees the remaining 16.6%. From a sectoral perspective, industry, as a whole, expects about 121 thousand new hires in April (+16 thousand compared to April 2023) and about 400 thousand in the April-June quarter (-6 thousand compared to the same period of the previous year), thanks above all to the planned entries from the construction sector (43 thousand in the month and 143 thousand in the quarter). The services sector expects 325 thousand hires in April (-13 thousand compared to a year ago) and over 1.1 million in the quarter (-41 thousand compared to 2023). Among services, the largest hiring flow evidently concerns the tourism sector with 105 thousand contracts to be activated in April and 391 thousand by June. This is followed by trade (over 63 thousand in the month and 207 thousand in the quarter) and personal services (45 thousand in the month and 173 thousand in the quarter).
In April, 47.8% of the personnel sought by companies was difficult to find (in line with the values for the first months of 2024 and +2.6 p.p. compared to a year ago). Among the most difficult to find figures, the Excelsior Information System’s Job Marketplace highlights: engineers (62.5% difficult to find) and analysts and application design specialists (55.7%) for the highly specialised professions; technicians in the engineering field (70.0%) and technicians in the management of the production processes of goods and services (66.2%) for the group of technical professions; counter clerks (51.7%) for the clerical figures; skilled workers in health and social services (55.3%) and beauty care workers (55.1%) for the skilled service professions; blacksmiths toolmakers (78.9%), specialised textile-clothing workers (70.9%) and workers on automatic and semi-automatic machines for metal processing (60.4%) for the skilled workers and plant operators groups.
The demand for immigrant workers is significant: about 88,000 recruitments planned for the month, equal to 19.8% of the total. The economic sectors with the greatest need for foreign labour are operational support services for companies and persons (34.4% of recruitments), transport, logistics and storage services (30.3%), construction (28.6%), metallurgy (21.2%) and wood-furniture (20.1%). Lastly, at a territorial level, it should be noted that the flow of entries expected in April in the northern regions is growing compared to the same month of 2023 (+12 thousand units for the North-West and +11 thousand for the North-East), against a negative trend for the Centre and the South (-9 thousand and -11 thousand).
The April forecasts are based on the interviews conducted on a sample of more than 111 thousand enterprises in the period 19 February 2024 – 05 March 2024.
