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Italian Minister of Economy, Giulio Tremonti, said today that steady jobs are better than job mobility, since they allow more certainty and social stability. A quite obvious statement, since everybody would like to be sure of his/her job for the whole life. But, unfortunately, maybe it is an unrealistic expectation. And it’s interesting that, while in Italy there is now a debate on this, in other countries the problem itself nearly do not make sense.

As much as one may like the idea of “one job for life”, there is a flaw in it: that is it implies that companies should always grow. But this is not be lifelike. Sure, a Government can support companies to protect jobs, but this has costs that fall on citizens, so it has do be done wisely.

Surely, the high uncertainty to which are exposed many worker is undoubtedly harmful. But the approach to the problem shouldn’t be “always the same work”, as someone would like, but instead “always a work”.

• The central issue is to focus on the medium-long term, and not on the short term. If a company is going through temporary, contingent, difficulties, it’s reasonable that it should be incentivated and supported to preserve jobs. It’s quite different if medium-long term oultook has been substantially deteriorated.
• In many countries, such as Italy, there is a distorted idea of job mobility: a “temporary worker” should be paid more than a “fix” one, to compensate the possible unemployment period he/she may eventually go throuh, and also because the thinner tie has a value for the company (that can cut this kind of jobs almost at will).
• In any case there is the need of efficient “social shock absorbers” not only to support who becomes unemployed, but also to help him/her to find as job as soon as possible, preferably in the meantime helping to improve his/her skills, to find a “better” job.
• It should not be underestimated also another side of the matter: in fact, part of the problem, in a country like Italy, is that while many worker have an uncertain income, they have absolutely certain expenses, such as mortgage payments, that may last 20-30 years, most of all these payment weigh heavily on income.

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Il posto fisso è meglio della mobilità? Certo, ma il problema è se sia realistico o meno