Cassa integrazione +23%, from Biella to Ascoli the map of the most affected areas

The number of hours of lay-offs requested by companies is increasing. In the first nine months of 2024, more than 350 million hours of social shock absorbers were authorised: 23.3% more than in the same period of 2023. The largest slice of these income support tools for workers, for suspensions or reductions in activity, is represented by the ordinary redundancy fund, which sees the number of hours authorised rise, on an annual basis, by 30 per cent. Suffering the most are the leather, hides and footwear sector, in which the authorised hours rose on an annual basis by 139.4 per cent, the clothing (+124.7 per cent), textiles (+74.6 per cent) and mechanics (+48.3 per cent).

The territorial cross-section also reveals the provinces where the slowdown in production or exports bites hardest: the highest variation, with respect to the number of hours requested, is recorded in Lecce (+275%), followed by Biella (+188%) and Sondrio (181.6%). Also striking are the increases in Reggio Emilia (+142%), Arezzo (+130.6%), and Ascoli Piceno (+111.5%). If we relate the demand for lay-offs to the number of companies in the area, we find that in the province of Belluno an average of 279.7 hours of lay-offs per company were authorised. In Biella the average is 239.9 hours per company, in Taranto it is 200.9 hours.

The hours requested for shock absorbers are not those actually used by the enterprises: the draught, i.e. the extent of the hours used, available in the Inps data only for the period January-July 2024, was 23.9 per cent for the ordinary Cig, 22.8 per cent for the extraordinary redundancy fund, and 50.9 per cent for the cassa in deroga.

According to the report of the study centre of the Lavoro & Welfare association on the redundancy fund in September 2024, if one considers the total hours of Cig authorised equivalent to jobs with zero hours, in the period January-September 2024 'a complete absence of productive activity for more than 232,000 workers can be determined'. While the lost working days would be 45 million (one must always consider what the actual draught of the shock absorbers will be, beyond July).

"The increase in lay-off hours is objective," explains Cesare Damiano, president of the Lavoro & Welfare association and former minister of labour. 'The increase,' he continues, 'is concentrated on ordinary Cig, for workers who suffer a reduction in the company's activity due to a temporary market difficulty, such as a drop in demand. There is no red alert,' he concludes, 'but the situation must be kept under review, because we are experiencing a structural change that involves the entire European manufacturing industry.