Why is there no staff in a crisis of 2.5 million unemployed?

UNEMPLOYED STAFF - The unemployment rate in Italy was already close to 10% before the crisis and the forecasts are not at all rosy. An increase of about 300 thousand unemployed is estimated as soon as the blocks of redundancies are removed. Yet, most companies and breeders complain of a great difficulty in finding staff! Why? Let’s find out together.

The unemployment rate is set to rise, but there are no staff

According to Unioncamere, as of December 2020, there would be 729,000 applications for employment, from managers to technicians, from employees to cleaners. Well, 33% (240 thousand people) are missing! I had already talked about it in my article in 2019 (https://www.lastampa.it/vercelli/2019/07/24/news/cercansi-meccanici-specializzati-ma-all-appello-non-respondness-1.37173715) and yet the situation does not seem to improve.

Let us examine together the motivations behind this strange phenomenon.

First of all, it must be said that the world of work has changed profoundly and the covid crisis has done nothing but accelerate the digital transformation: from Blockbuster we moved to Youtube, the classic commercial store has been replaced by Amazon, Travel agencies have been supplanted by online travel and TV has been replaced by portals like Netflix! What does that mean? Operating hours have collapsed, leaving more room for different activities, which certainly require more specific training, more commitment and more responsibility. Most people understand change but do not accept that the world of work has changed at the same speed.

Isn’t there any qualified staff among the unemployed?

The first problem is certainly to be identified in education: when an unemployed person lacks the skills that the market requires, training makes a difference. In Italy there is little, too little: the fault is not only to refer to the few regional notices that are limited to providing a lack of generic training not in line with what the territory asks.
The problem is also rooted in the mentality of a large part of the population: everyone wants a fixed salary, but almost no one is willing to change, to put themselves in the game to do something different.

After all, the meanings of the word "work" represent only negative concepts: fatigue, effort, labor... It would therefore be foolish to say that there are people with the desire to struggle, to strive or to suffer physical and mental labor. I have already mentioned this in part in my last article:

"A lot of people got caught up in an old socio-economic paradox. They abandon their dreams and aspirations in favor of alienating, stressful and insignificant roles, all small cages kindly offered by the system itself, where people get stuck for life in exchange for a secure salary at the end of the month. How many of us are really willing to put up with this for 40 years in exchange for a small salary by the end of the month? And how many of us are really ready to get into the game to re-invent and qualify to go and realize their dreams through the work that you love to do?"

Social policies do not encourage recruitment opportunities for the unemployed staff

Actually, this scenario only increases the number of people entitled to benefits. In June, 1.3 million people were earning unemployment (Naspi), just as many are able to work who take the income of citizenship. Additionally to the unemployed there are also 13.5 million inactive and discouraged, especially young people who are not looking for a place, convinced that they do not find it...

In Italy, labor policies have been made simply by giving money to the unemployed to get to the end of the month. A road that doesn’t solve anything, because the state can’t deliver them forever... and to take away the incentives is like to suspend the Tachipirina to who has the flu: then the fever returns. And in the meantime, there are still a lot of inactive workers who somehow perceive a temporary income and don’t bother, either to look for a job that can satisfy them economically, or to invest in their own personal growth to carry out one that can please them.

How can we escape the paradox of the unemployed jobless?

So what can be a solution to get out of this paradox? First of all, I believe that the important changes come from ourselves: as long as we are waiting for some form of incentive or intelligent policy on the part of the State, we will be overwhelmed by the catastrophic events that are changing the world.
Secondly, we must take advantage of this "stalemate" to do some introspection and ask ourselves what we really want. Let us find the courage to express our dreams and, once we have clarified what our specific will is, let us take action to implement a plan that starts above all from personal growth: if we want to have more, we must be willing to be more!

Finally, I would like to remind you that there is not only "traditional work". We could, for example, think of getting rich not by looking for a fixed salary, but by aiming for a passive income. And this current economic scenario, very driven by digitization, allows anyone to create one, even from scratch. We are used to associate the word "rent" with demanding investments such as those on the stock exchange or in large companies or in real estate. In fact, this goal is available to everyone, if we think of all the forms of passive income that can be created by exploiting the internet. For example, developing useful and fun applications. Or, with the production and dissemination of creative content such as books and music, up to more smart business forms such as network marketing. This sector in Italy is in great evolution. It has about 300,000 units of use, an increase in turnover of +6.7% in the period January-September 2020 for a total of over 478 million euro.