Alberto Ribolla: the social role of businesses is emerging strongly in Lombardy

Milan, 21 July 2015 – For the Lombardy labour market, 2014 was a year of suspension and waiting. There was no shortage of positive signs, particularly among medium and high-tech companies, alongside confirmation of certain uniquely Lombard characteristics. Specifically, the high rate of female employment, a slight contraction in permanent contracts, and the significant attention paid by companies to corporate welfare programmes were confirmed. These are the contrasting signals that emerged from the 'Labour in Lombardy – 2015 Report' survey, conducted by the Confindustria Lombardia Research Centre in collaboration with the LIUC – Cattaneo University, on a sample of 1,430 companies representative of all Lombard provinces.

“As our regional monitoring shows – explains Alberto Ribolla, President of Confindustria Lombardia – a climate of confidence and cautious optimism returned among our companies in 2014. Lombard entrepreneurs have always been very attentive to the context and new developments. This is demonstrated by the stand-by on permanent contracts while awaiting government reforms, but also by the focus on corporate welfare: in a period of crisis, the social role played by our companies is emerging strongly, as they have decided to increase corporate welfare programmes rather than make cuts. The increase in the presence of women in decision-making roles and within companies more generally is also synonymous with entrepreneurial maturity.”

“The greater dynamism of companies in the medium and high-tech sectors that emerged from the data – adds the President of Confindustria Lombardia – testifies that the path taken by our manufacturing companies is the right one. The next leap is towards Industry 4.0, but to manage this transition, we need investment, including in high-skilled human resources, as well as a public-private steering committee,” concludes Alberto Ribolla.

The following are the most significant details from the 8th edition of the Confindustria Lombardia 'Labour in Lombardy' Report, a survey that will be released in full in September:

• 2014 confirmed the trend (which began a few years ago) towards a significant increase in the proportion of women holding senior or semi-senior professional positions (middle and senior management). Today, women in medium and high-responsibility roles account for 12.1% of the total workforce in Lombardy. (chart 1);
• 2014 recorded a slight but widespread contraction in the number of employees with permanent contracts (-1.6% compared to 2013). This is an apparent reversal of the trend regarding a consolidated characteristic of the Lombard workforce – the high proportion of workers with stable contracts – which had held firm even during the worst years of the crisis: a vital necessity for our companies, which build one of their main competitive assets on the consistency of the employment relationship with their most specialised staff. In reality, as the data on Mandatory Communications for the first quarter of 2015 provided by the Ministry of Labour recently demonstrated, the phenomenon is due to the anticipation of contribution relief and the introduction of the new contract with increasing protections for new hires, which effectively came into force at the beginning of 2015; (chart 2)
• Companies operating in medium-high and high-tech sectors are the most open to women and young people, with a strong focus on human resource retention policies. According to the 2015 Confindustria Lombardia survey on the Lombard labour market for 2014, it is in these companies that the highest rates of female employment are found in Lombardy (21.8% for medium-high tech and 30.8% for high tech respectively) and a higher-than-average regional use of apprenticeship contracts (used by 26.2% of MHT companies and 21.2% of HT companies). Companies in the most technologically intensive sectors also stand out for the highest incidence of new permanent hires (35.6% and 52.2% of total hires respectively) and greater use of welfare tools (used by 46.7% of MHT and 52.5% of HT companies respectively); (chart 3)
• Despite the austerity imposed by the long crisis, Lombard companies have not "cut" corporate welfare resources; on the contrary. According to the 2015 Confindustria Lombardia survey on the Lombard labour market for 2014, employees in 42% of Lombard companies benefit from welfare programmes, in many cases launched only in the last few years; (chart 4)

The sample analysed by the Confindustria Lombardia Research Centre consists of 1,430 member companies with 213,467 employees. 72.4% of the sample companies belong to the manufacturing industry, and 27.6% to the service sector. The sample covers all size classes and all technological intensity classes homogeneously (Low Tech 22.4%, Medium Low 35.9%, Medium High 32.1%, High Tech 9.6%).

Attachments

• press release 'Labour in Lombardy – 2015 Report' survey.pdf