Reduced rents for new hires entering the world of work and to attract talent from abroad. This, in a nutshell, is the proposal put forward by the president of Confindustria Emanuele Orsini at a Salento event. The proposal, which is still quite vague in its outline, would revolve around the possibility of temporarily providing for first-time workers, reduced rents with a rent threshold “not exceeding 500 euros per month, equal to about 25% of the salary, but to implement a building plan for new housing it would take two or three years”.

The split in the ruling class

While on the one hand it is certainly a good sign that the number one of Confindustria has decided to publicly discuss an aspect that is too often forgotten, on the other hand the disconnection of the ruling class appears very evident. The high rents that are gripping the major cities are only a small piece of the enormous mosaic that makes up the picture of a world of work, the Italian one, totally incapable of keeping up with the times. Because while it is certainly true that the amounts and guarantees on average requested for the rent of shared houses or micro-apartments that look more like burial niches than habitable housing are a significant barrier for those who, to give a trivial example, would like to seize a job opportunity in Milan, Florence, Bologna, Rome, Cagliari and so on, it is certainly not the only one nor, if we are talking about attracting talent from abroad, the most important. And Confindustria’s alms is not the answer to the problem.

In Italy, every week the newspapers raise the alarmed voices of CEOs, industrialists and trade associations who speak of the very serious lack of workers in every sector. There is a lack of waiters, drivers, bakers, engineers, computer scientists, workers of every kind. And every time the very rare question about the reasons for this atavistic lack is asked, the answers are perennially grotesque, a disconnect from reality of epic proportions.

Public transport: no drivers to be found, very low salaries

I’ll give you a very simple example that in my opinion explains the concept well: for a couple of years, Atm, the Milanese transport company, has been unable to find staff. Not only has it been unable to find staff, but it is also facing a real wave of mass resignations, both from long-time employees and from new hires who after a few months of probation decide to leave. The result? Cuts in trips and quality of service at an all-time low. Atm has tried to take control of the situation by offering the possibility of obtaining the necessary special licenses for free and providing contributions to cover rents, but something doesn’t seem to be working. And here we arrive in July 2024 when, opening Google News, I see a lunar interview with the company’s CEO Arrigo Giana who claims that the problem is that the work is not attractive because you have to work at Christmas or on the weekend.

Instead, it would be enough to read one of the dozens of interviews given to the press by ATM drivers and former drivers who explain very well what the roots of the problem are and why public transport employees have been on strike every two weeks for years: requests for crazy shifts, overtime galore, very low salaries that are not even remotely in line with the cost of living which, I’ll tell you a secret, is not only made up of rent, and above all the total lack of safety for workers, who every day have to deal with attacks, arguments, thefts. On salaries, then, the pearl: “The trade unions in the renewal of the national contract have requested an average increase of 18% of salaries. Consider that for ATM the cost of labor is now around 500 million euros. Do the math on what it could weigh on what is historically the most solid of Italian companies, then imagine for the sector what it means with equal resources”. I think the translation of the Ad thought is not necessary.

Here, the reasons why Atm not only can’t find but can’t even retain those who try are many but if the CEO in a public interview reduces everything to working at Christmas or on the weekend or says that the requested increase is too onerous there is something wrong. And that something is the understanding of the reality that surrounds him, like those who think they can attract talent by offering controlled rents with salaries that however have no comparison with those offered in other countries for the same path and experience.

Workers fleeing

Every year, thousands of talents trained for an infinite multitude of professions flee elsewhere from Italy in search of a professional opportunity in line with their training and the efforts made in years and years of study or apprenticeship. No, we are not just talking about so-called “high” profiles, we are also talking about workers in the much-maligned restaurant and tourism sector who are careful not to stay in Italy but are happy to go and do the exact same job elsewhere. And they often flee to cities where high rents are a reality exactly like the Italian one. What they find, however, compared to their homeland, are professional opportunities that not only give access to salaries that are decidedly more dignified and in line with the cost of living compared to those offered in the Bel Paese but also and above all to a working culture that is completely different from the one that still too often exists within the owner-run Italian companies. Well, when we start working on all the pieces of the mosaic then perhaps Italy will once again become attractive for young people and foreign talents.