Although it is impossible to overlook or to underestimate the results that Italy has achieved over the years, many objectives of the Lisbon Strategy are still far from being reached; and this recent crisis has made them all the more unobtainable.
Unemployment has risen since the end of 2008: in Italy in 2009 job-seekers accounted for 7.8% of the labour force compared to 6.7% in 2008; Veneto recorded a rate of 4.8% compared to 3.5% in 2008, giving it the third lowest rate in the country, on an equal footing with Emilia Romagna.
Employment rates fell both in Italy and in Veneto in 2009, making it increasingly unlikely that they will achieve the objectives set out by the Lisbon Strategy, which aims to see 70% employment rates for Europe by 2010. In Veneto, where employment rates are consistently higher than the national average, in 2009 64.6% of the population between 15 and 64 years old were employed, almost two percentage points less than the figure for the previous year.
The economic and financial crisis has weighed heavily on public finances, enterprises, the labour market and families. Therefore, in 2009 the Italian government intervened with a major anti-crisis package that contained measures geared towards supporting families, the needy, workers and enterprises. In order to emerge from this crisis, the network of employment support services needs to be strengthened by integrating welfare and workfare policies.
One of the major instruments for supporting wages and protecting workers is unquestionably the Wages Guarantee Fund. In 2009 payment of 918 million hours from the Wages Guarantee Fund was authorised in Italy, more than four times that of the previous year; in Veneto almost 82 million hours were authorised, more than five times the figure for 2008. Both in Veneto and in Italy, more hours were covered by the ordinary Wages Guarantee Fund than by the special Wages Guarantee Fund. However as 2009 progressed there was a surge in the applications for the special fund. Note, though, that a large amount of the hours requested was not actually used, which suggests businesses requested them as a precaution.
(Chapter 5 in figures)