Svimez : Puglia, the most dynamic Italian region in the years 2019-2023, +6.1% GDP growth. Employment is also increasing: according to Istat, +17 thousand units in the first quarter of 2024.

“Over the period 2019-2023, the Puglia region was the most dynamic Italian region with growth of 6.1%. This was written by Svimez , the Association for the development of industry and the South, in the report published today. In the same years, Italy grew by 3.5% and the South by 3.7%, in turn recording a better figure than the Centre-North (+3.4%), the Center (+1.7%) and the North-West (+3.4%). Among the divisions, the North-East does better (+5.1%), but remains one point behind Puglia. Good news also from an employment perspective. Istat certifies a trend increase of 17 thousand employed from January to March 2024 with growth in the employment rate and reduction in the unemployment rate.

“Thanks to the efforts of everyone, from workers, to businesses, from institutions, to the banking system, passing through the world of university training and research – said the president of the Puglia Region Michele Emiliano – we have been protagonists of sustained growth which it withstood the pandemic crisis with an extraordinary regional economic maneuver but which, above all, supported the territory throughout the 2014-2020 structural funds programming, mobilizing over 8.4 billion in investments. We worked in silence and many of us did it, pooling our strength and courage. Today we reap the fruits of those efforts while we have already activated all the new tools to facilitate the 2021-2027 programming".

“That same maneuver of the 2014-2020 cycle – added the councilor for economic development of the Puglia Region Alessandro Delli Noci – generated employment increases of more than 41 thousand units. This is also why the growth trend certified by Istat continues. In the 2021-2027 cycle tools our focus is mainly on driving innovation. We are comforted by the positive response to our investment support policies from companies, which are increasingly oriented towards the challenges of the digital and energy transition".

The growth trend in Apulian employment in the first quarter of 2024 continues both at a trend and economic level. There were 17 thousand more employed people from January to March compared to the same period of the previous year. In absolute terms, in the space of a year, the number of workers went from 1,271 in the first three months of 2023 to 1,288 million in the same period of 2024.

These are the numbers published by Istat in the update of the database dedicated to work.

The Apulian performance increases the employment rate by one percentage point (from 49.8 points to 50.8), exceeding the average of the South, whose rate, despite trend growth, stops at 48.3%. Puglia's unemployment rate also fell from 13.4 in the first quarter of 2023 to 11.2 in the same period of 2024, almost three percentage points less than in the South, for which the average for the quarter was 14.1 %.