TUSCANY NEWS – WORK FLASH N. 54/2022

TUSCANY NEWS – WORK FLASH N. 54/2022

In the third quarter of 2022, in Italy, labor input, measured by hours worked, increased by 2.7% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2021 and remained stable compared to the previous quarter; in the same period the GDP grew by 0.5% in cyclical terms and by 2.6% in trend terms. In Tuscany, the total number of employed persons recorded a growth of 6.1% on an annual basis and of 0.9% on the previous quarter, the latter variation being decidedly lower than that achieved between the second and first quarters, signaling a slowdown in the pace of growth . The start-ups between July and September show, in fact, a reduction on an annual basis and the quarterly changes in the seasonally adjusted number of employees show a progressive reduction from 1.4% of the former to 0.7 of the third, with a negative value for the finished work. However, there is a strong reduction in the number of unemployed, -36 thousand, and in the unemployment rate, from 7.1% in the third quarter of 2021 to 4.8%. The share of the so-called discouraged is also considerably reduced and female participation in the labor market increases. The demand for dependent labor favored stable work above all through contractual transformations, 39 thousand between January and September, the highest value since 2009. All sectors, with the sole exception of credit, show positive changes compared to the previous year. The tanning, footwear and marble sectors have not yet recovered to the levels of the pre-Covid year.

WORK IN TOURISM Until the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, tourist consumption represented for Tuscany an important engine of job creation, which helped to cushion in quantitative terms the negative effects of the economic crises that followed one another over the decade, in particular the great post-recession 2007. Between 2011 and 2019, the growth in tourism employment was concentrated above all in the cities of art, reinforcing the positive dynamics of employment, while it was insufficient to offset the negative effects of the crises in the manufacturing and construction sectors in the areas coastal and marginal. In 2020, Covid-19 hit the Tuscan tourist economy with particular virulence, penalizing above all the cities and more generally the destinations most exposed to international non-European markets, in which the growth of tourist work was concentrated in the last decade. The measures taken to protect employment have mitigated the destruction of tourist employment, above all safeguarding more stable jobs and penalizing the Italian female and youth components. The very strong recovery of tourist flows, observed starting from May 2021, had a positive impact on tourist employment which in most destinations has now recovered, by the end of 2022, to pre-pandemic levels.