With regard to the future development of the two indicators, on the other hand, sooner or later GDP will have to return to growth in a way that is persistently greater than employment. This is for obvious reasons, given that the increase of numbers employed occurred in recent years, also considering the demographic dynamics of our country, is to be considered a conjunctural element of the labor market rather than a structural one. How much growth can continue to strengthen will also depend on the actual ability of the Jobs Act to improve the allocation of workers in the productive fabric.
THE JOBS ACT: HIRINGS, CONTRACT CONVERSIONS AND DISMISSALS As foreseen in the preceding sections, one of the major difficulties in evaluating the effects of the Jobs Act lies is the fact that the introduction of the single contract with increasing protection (March 2015) was accompanied and anticipated (January 2015) by a strong contribution exemption for businesses that chose to hire with the permanent contract, or to stabilize temporary work already in existence. This exemption (L. 208/2015) envisages a cut in pension contributions for three years with a maximum annual ceiling of â‚Ź8,060 and an overall saving for the employer, over the period, of â‚Ź24,180. Contribution reduction is applied to new hirings on permanent contracts (whether full-time or part-time; in the latter case with an adjustment proportional to working hours) and on the conversion of fixed term contracts to permanent contracts. Even though the range of potential beneficiaries is quite extensive, in our opinion there are three principal restrictions envisaged: (i) the first, as was noted, is the fact that new legislation of this kind is not applicable to public undertakings; (ii) the exemption is not envisaged for workers who had a permanent job during the previous 6 months, with any employer whatsoever; (iii) and, finally, reduction in contributions is not applied to contract conversions for apprentices, though it is for fixed term contract conversion. Contribution reduction was subsequently also renewed, to a significantly reduced extent, in the Stability Law of 2016. What the relative effect might be of the two measures (the single contract with greater ease of dismissal, and contribution reduction) remains an open question and, at a distance of two years, is still much debated. It is probable that the exemptions from
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