On January 17, 2022, the Ministry of Labor released a communication with Banca d’Italia and Anpal regarding the 2021 labor market trend.
Almost two-thirds of global workers, about 64%, said they experienced occupational repercussions due to the Covid-19 emergency.
In fact, COVID-19 was not only a health emergency, but also constituted a major crisis to the world of business and the labor market.
The first data that portrays this situation is the number of hours worked on a global scale, which last year grew by 5.9% compared to 2020.
The labor market in Italy was already experiencing strong changes before Covid and this has accelerated them, bringing out the need for solutions capable of responding to the challenges that characterize this era of change caused by digitization, an aging population and climate change.
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Now that the market has “restarted” , it needs solutions to successfully deal with the changes taking place. New skills development, flexibility, resilience, inclusion, active policies are just some of the key values that will be adopted by workers, companies and policy makers.
To date, one of the solutions to successfully address the changes taking place concerns the remote work mode, which has been adopted by companies and workers.
Nowadays hybrid work approach ( between in-person and remote modes) has been adopted by around 38% of companies: employees will be able to work remotely at least 2 days a week and 14% at least 1 day a week. In other cases, workers are able to work 3 to 5 days from home or even to a presence of only one day per month.
Companies are changing their organization and appearance to adapt to the new hybrid work mode. 30% have already restructured the physical spaces of the company to organize remote work and less physical presence.
The smart work mode has re-defined what we consedered to be the “norm” when it came to a normal “working schedule”; it is therefore also the result of knowing how to use digital innovation to support strategic approaches that focus on integration and collaboration between people, in particular, and between organizations.
Moreover, the International Labor Organization’s strategy to limit and contain the effects of COVID-19 on the world of work is structured around four main pillars:
1. support the economy and labor
2. supporting businesses, employment and incomes
3. new measures for male and female workers
4. finding solutions through social dialogue
Therefore, policies should focus on two immediate objectives: health protection measures and economic support on both the demand and supply side.