PA, turnover continues but young people, technicians and new profiles are missing: FPA data on public work
Among the broader objectives of the reforms financed (also) with funds from the PNRR is the renewal of the Public Administration , to be implemented through a large turnover of personnel. To this end, the mechanism of public competitions was first of all reformed (with the entry into force of the so-called 'Brunetta reform'), to speed up the procedures for identifying the resources to be included in the public administrations.
In relation to the new objectives, the Department of Public Administration then defined the new guidelines for the selection of civil servants. In principle, " the administrations will have to identify their own professional needs considering not only the theoretical knowledge of the employees (knowledge), but also the technical skills (know how) and behavioral (know how) ". By virtue of the new parameters for identifying personnel, we read on the institutional portal serviziopubblicagov.it , " the new hires will not consist in replacing old figures with other identical ones , but will look to the future, to the new skills that must support the transformation of the planned PA from the Pnrr” .
The Public Administration in Italy: the data
The change of approach is also due to the current composition of the staff of the Italian public administrations; based on what was highlighted by the research " Public work 2023 " conducted by FPA, presented on the occasion of the PA 2023 Forum, " at the end of 2022 civil servants in Italy are growing again, reaching 3,266,180 units , the highest value in the last decade ”. The study highlights how the workforce of the Italian PAs is characterized by “ a high average age , few young people, little training and a lack of technicians and specialist profiles to meet the challenges of the PNRR ”.
While recording a strong recovery in public competitions , the sector has to deal with a decrease in candidates and an increase in resignations , partially offset by an increase in fixed-term contracts .
The public competitions
The primary tool for implementing the necessary personnel turnover is undoubtedly that of bankruptcy procedures. The aforementioned 'Brunetta reform' has streamlined the selection process in public competitions which, between 2019 and 2021, experienced a particularly intense season, between the necessary recovery of procedures suspended due to the pandemic and the organization of new preparatory competitions for achieving the objectives of the PNRR.
Between the end of 2021 and last March, in fact, the InPA portal counts 2,210 competitions (of which 767 are still ongoing) which have banned almost 35,000 jobs, of which over 19,000 banned this year alone; overall, 72% of positions are for permanent positions. The activation of the InPA portal represents another piece of the renewal and digitization of the Public Administration: from 31 May it will become the only channel used by central and local administrations for the publication of calls for tenders, thus replacing the appropriate section of the Official Gazette ; in this way, applicants will be able to access more easily the display of active notices. Alternatively, it is also possible to consult specialized portals such as concorsipubblici.com to stay updated on the competitions activated by central and local administrations.
Few young people, more graduates but less training
The picture that emerges from the analysis conducted by FPA, as regards the composition of the workforce, is rather complex. Despite the new hirings, the average age remains over fifty (50.7 years) while, over the last twenty years, the age at which they join the workforce has also increased (from 29.3 to 34.3 years) . Therefore, it is not surprising that public employees under 30 are less than 5% (only 3.6% is stable): in schools, ministries and local authorities, on average only 2% of employees are under 30 and a permanent contract . On the other hand, the share of permanent employees over 60 reaches 29.3% in the Ministries and 20.8% in local functions; similar percentages are recorded in schools: 22.8% of stable workers over 60 (against 0.3% of under 30).
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The PA article, the turnover continues but there is a lack of young people, technicians and new profiles: the FPA data on public work comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/pa-prosegue-il-turnover-ma-mancano-giovani-tecnici-e-nuovi-profili-i-dati-fpa-sul-lavoro-pubblico/ on Sun, 21 May 2023 22:01:48 +0000.