(Finance) – Social distress continues to expandmeasured by Confcommercio as a direct consequence of the state of the labor market and price growth, precisely because of theexcessive increase in inflationwhich translates into a reduction in the purchasing power of families.
The Confcommercio Misery Index (MIC), in September, it stood at a estimated value of 17.3 pointsup by five tenths of a point on the previous month.
The increase is attributable to a recovery in inflation for the prices of goods and services with a high frequency of purchase, which in September recorded a trend variation of 8.4% compared to 7.7% in August, due to the acceleration of food products. The first estimates of October indicate that the prices of these goods and services are still intense dynamics, especially considering that the calculation of the prices of high-frequency goods and services does not include energy and gas costs, included among those on average. frequency.
According to the director of the Research Department, Mariano Bella, “the permanence of high inflation, especially for those goods and services purchased more frequently by families whose consumption it is in many cases poorly compressibleand the fears of a worsening of the economic situation in the coming months, consolidate the expectations of a widening of the area of social hardship between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 “.
Positive signs instead they come from job market. In September, the number of busy it started to grow again (+ 46 thousand units on August) after the reductions of the previous two months. The number of job seekers recorded a minimal variation (+ 8 thousand units in short-term terms). These dynamics have resulted in a stability of the official unemployment rate (7.9%). This evolution was associated with a reduction in inactive people (-86 thousand units in August). In the same month, the hours authorized by CIG were over 31.1 million, to which must be added approximately 4.5 million hours for checks disbursed by solidarity funds.