Italy: data from H1 2022 confirms the ‘great resignation’ in what has been a dynamic labour market

More than one million employees resigned their jobs in the first half of 2022, almost 32% more than in the first six months of 2021. On 15 September, monthly jobs data from the INPS Osservatario del Precariato confirmed the Italian-style “Great Resignation” has occurred, which many HR heads had already sensed. The INPS flow data showed that employee resignations (from permanent employment contracts) exceeded 624,000 in the first half of the year, 22% more than in the same period last year, and 28% more than in the first half of 2019. These figures should be assessed in context because of the paralysis that marked the first phase of the pandemic. Indeed, the INPS notes that the level of resignations in 2022 “underlies the full recovery of those that did not occur in 2020. The first six months of the 2022 also confirm the dynamism of the private market labour market, with a positive balance of 946,000 work contracts. Employment hirings amounted to 4.26 million (+26% compared to the first half of 2021) vis-a-vis 3.32 million terminations (+36%). Compared to the years 2018-2019, there has been a marked increase in employment hirings, job conversions, and terminations of employment contracts.