Messina continues to remain black list for employment and development. According to the latest data released by the Bank of Italy on the Sicilian economy and by Istat for employment, the province of Messina has one of the lowest employment rates, just 37.9 percent, despite the enormous potential it has. «It is a situation that we have been denouncing for some time – states the CGIL Messina -. On the one hand there is a province that sees growth in family savings, a quality university fabric and an economic heritage that could represent the engine of development, but on the other hand these capitals are not transformed into productive investments, innovation and employment. In recent years, thousands of jobs have been lost and the number of resigned people who are giving up even looking for work is growing. Added to this are precariousness, involuntary part-time, low wages and continuous emigration of young people.”
The analysis of the data provided also highlights a slowdown in public investments, the reduction of credit to businesses, infrastructural delays, high costs of living and the inability to transform private savings into local development.
«It is no longer time for analysis – states the general secretary of the union, Pietro Patti – but for courageous choices. Messina risks experiencing an increasingly evident contradiction, it produces wealth but not work, it accumulates savings but investments are made elsewhere, it trains skills but young people, once they finish their studies, leave. To reverse this trend, infrastructural, industrial and logistical choices are needed.”
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