Kick-starting proceedings at this national roundtable event was recognition that debate on the state of the labor market in Italy and reflection on how the country measures up with conditions and models in other countries (Germany and the Netherlands in particular) are now more than ever imperative, at a time when the jobless rate is higher than the EU average (and is, indeed, the highest for youth unemployment), and when manufacturing output and consumer prices are in decline.
The participants found it difficult to conceive how the country might regain its former competitiveness without focusing on training and education for new generations that is adapted not so much to present-day but to future needs, by supporting public policies that tailor studies accordingly starting from eighth-grade level. To this end, it was stressed that Italy cannot afford to train young people for decades to come to perform roles that will no longer exist (with statistics cited indicating that 40% of current jobs will disappear within the next 15 years).
There were therefore calls for Italy’s university system to be overhauled and better integrated with industry, including in terms of curriculum design, with a focus on languages, IT and other skills required by leading firms in expanding markets. It was noted, in this regard, that qualifications in data science are among the most sought-after, and yet only one such specific degree course exists in all of Europe.
The roundtable attendees also suggested that vocational training, which in Italy is only used to create jobs for unskilled labor, could follow the German model, where people specialize as technicians in sectors that are strategic for the development of tomorrow’s industry (such as aerospace, for instance). It was thus felt that work experience programs should be put into effect and that flexible solutions need to be found which are capable of attracting foreign investment.
Indeed, rigidity was singled out as one of the causes of the country’s protracted employment crisis. While large firms have made way for smaller and more flexible operators, the labor market has not followed suit, as a consequence making it uncompetitive in cost terms, which in turn is one of the causes of Italy’s high unemployment. It was conceded that the European Youth Guarantee scheme has sought to provide responses to address this issue. However, while these responses were deemed worthwhile from the point of view of the number of young people taken on by the scheme (some 400,000 and constantly growing), they were nevertheless viewed as inadequate from the standpoint of the results achieved thus far.
A comparison with other European countries, especially Germany, emerged during the discussions as unforgiving on many fronts.
One area where the country was revealed as being on particularly slippery ground was that of public-sector employment, with Germany offering around 280 thousand more jobs to young people (particularly in the areas of health, social services and education) than Italy does. It was remarked that the public-sector hiring freeze has done little to attract young people into the Italian labor market, yet government spending continues to rise notwithstanding the halt on recruitment.
There was a perceived need to come up with an appropriate flexicurity model, an approach which though recommended many years ago has failed to make headway due to political instability and the non-implementation of various associated laws passed over the years.
While the participants acknowledged that enabling law 183 of 2014 (the so-called “Jobs Act”) partially responds to the country’s needs by going some way towards regulating flexibility in dismissals, it was stressed that certain matters (such as internal flexibility, employee protections, apprenticeships, streamlining work contract types, and employment agencies) require further attention. The Jobs Act also points towards the adoption – in line with practice in the Netherlands – of outplacement contracts for the re-employment of dismissed personnel, in an attempt to integrate public and private employment services, with regional job centers serving as hubs. In concluding, the participants therefore highlighted the importance of the future National Employment Agency being vested with oversight and coordination powers, so as to facilitate the operation of a public-private partnership that allows scope for the exercise of workers’ choice.