The ways of growth

Public-private partnership to improve active labour policies

27 August 2025

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The infamous mismatch between labour supply and demand has manifested itself since the aftermath of the pandemic, when the economy was embarking on a record recovery and an 'exceptional' cycle, resulting in unemployment at its lowest level since 2008 and vacancies at an all-time high.

Today, the phenomenon is at least clearer. The mismatch manifests itself mainly through three interconnected dimensions; that is, in relation to qualifications and education; in relation to the demographic transition, which generates a liability between labour market entries and exits; and finally, geographically: jobs and potential workers are often far apart. In sum, the labour market is grappling with a post-pandemic reorganisation, where structural distortions have emerged under the pressure of growth.

To address the paradox of simultaneous dissatisfaction of both demand and supply, the notorious active labour policies are increasingly a crucial aspect of industrial policies.

Historical shortcomings, and the experience of more recent years, offer some insights into aspects of the upcoming scenario. First of all, the NRP had earmarked resources precisely to resolve the shortcomings of this sector, which has never really been implanted in Italy; the so-called 'strengthening', which was supposed to reinforce the public segment of the sector, has not yielded the hoped-for returns. And this is because the measures have led to the recruitment of generic and untargeted figures; in fact, there was and is no standard model of intervention capable of developing public services in such a way as to fill the gap separating them from companies and private competitors. And the experiments of past years have not been valorised in order to raise them to the status of a model and not just good practices spread in a patchy manner throughout the territories.

Recent experience confirms that the public must certainly be guaranteed a role in the design and governance of policies, but the instrumentation at its disposal is not capable of evolving to meet current needs, all the more so in a condition of substantial urgency. An urgency that, at the moment, as the NRP cycle comes to an end and the new programming gets underway, requires that the chain capable of implementing the policies in question be articulated, and with urgency.

This chain can only derive from an inevitable partnership between a public sector - now resigned almost everywhere to the now peaceful role of governance-erogative-administrative - and a private sector that is asked, however, to make a qualitative leap, which is by no means taken for granted.

Since the twenty years since the reform that de facto equalised the tasks and prerogatives of public and private agencies, the latter have generally accommodated themselves in the most profitable and least complex segment of the market, namely administration. This, in a context of high unemployment, consisted of high-margin commercial work, aimed at placement, and connoted the necessary business functions. Well, in the light of the scenario of lower unemployment and mismatch, private individuals will have to put themselves in a position to develop, and quickly, the functions necessary not only to place the resource, but to contribute to its identification, orientation, upskilling or reskilling and, only finally, to placement. A more articulated work carried out in a closer synergy with public provider and administrator, people and companies. The market for staffing agencies will rapidly shrink and the space for employment agencies, fully understood, will expand.

After all, the country needs more effective active labour policies, educational guidance and training provision consistent with the needs of the production system, and modern training and demand-supply matching devices. The apparent technicality of the demand-supply mismatch sounds like a warning to the country and businesses: nothing really lasting is built on disappointment and betrayed hopes. But it also constitutes a warning to policy makers and private agencies: one cycle is over, another must be opened quickly, or else be marginalised.

President of Centro Studi Legacoop, Lecturer Unimercatorum

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Public-private partnership to improve active labour policies

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