(Finance) – In the second quarter of 2024, labor input, measured by hours worked, decreased by -0.2% compared to the previous quarter and increased by 1.6% compared to the second quarter of 2023. In the same period, Pit recorded growth both in cyclical terms (+0.2%) and in trend terms (+0.9%).
He reports it the Istat stressing that the number of employed people increased in quarterly terms by 124 thousand units (+0.5% compared to the first quarter of 2024), following the growth of permanent employees (+141 thousand, +0.9%) and self-employed workers (+38 thousand, +0.7%) which more than offset the decrease in fixed-term employees (-55 thousand, -1.9%); the number of unemployed people decreased (-84 thousand, -4.6% in three months) and the number of inactive people aged 15-64 increased (+32 thousand, +0.3%). The trend for rates was similar: the employment rate reached 62.2% (+0.2 points), the unemployment rate fell to 6.8% (-0.3 points) and the inactivity rate for 15-64 year olds was stable at 33.1%. In the provisional data for the month of July 2024, compared to the previous month, there is an increase in employed people (+56 thousand, +0.2%) and in the relative rate (+0.1 points) which is associated with the decrease in the unemployment rate (-0.4 points) and the growth of the inactivity rate for 15-64 year olds (+0.2 points).
The occupation, in the second quarter, it also grew in trend terms (+329 thousand, +1.4% in a year), involving, in this case too, permanent employees (+3.3%) and self-employed workers (+0.6%) compared to the decrease in fixed-term employees (-6.7%); the decline in the unemployed continued (-194 thousand in a year, -10.2%) and, at a slower pace than in the previous quarter, that of inactive people between 15 and 64 years of age (-32 thousand, -0.3%). This trend is reflected in the growth of the employment rate (+0.7 points compared to the second quarter of 2023) and in the decrease in the unemployment (-0.8 points) and inactivity (-0.2 points) rates.
On the business side, the quarterly growth in employee positions observed since the second quarter of 2021 continues, with an increase of 0.5%; the intensity of the growth is similar for the full-time component and slightly lower for the part-time component (+0.4%); also in trend terms, the growth in employee positions (+2.6%) is more marked among full-time workers (also at +2.6%) and slightly more contained among part-time workers (+2.4%). The hours worked per employee decrease in quarterly terms (-1.0%), although increasing in trend terms (+0.3%).
The use of redundancy payments drops to 7.5 hours for every thousand hours worked. The vacancy rate decreases by 0.1 points in the quarterly comparison and by 0.3 in the trend comparison. The cost of labor per Full-time Equivalent Work Unit (Ula) records a significant increase on a quarterly basis, equal to 1.9%, due to the growth of both wages (+1.7%) and, to a slightly higher extent, of social contributions (+2.4); the increase in the cost of labor is also recorded in trend terms, settling at 4.5%, once again due to the significant growth of both the wage component (+4.7%) and social contributions (+4.4%). Istat underlines that the particularly strong growth in wages observed in this quarter “it is mainly linked to the financial benefits provided for in the contract renewals”.