The industrial crisis, record layoffs in Lombardy: 17.9% increase in a year
October 26, 2025
Metalworkers were the hardest hit by the redundancy fund with reduced hours and wages.
Milan, October 26, 2025 – In the first half of the year, the use of redundancy funds increased by 17.9% in Lombardy . This represents 8.5 million more hours than in the same period in 2024: 56 million hours were introduced by companies between January and June, including ordinary, extraordinary, and exceptional redundancy funds.
The INPS report, prepared by the Research Office of the Mestre-based CGIA (Association of Artisans and Small Businesses), calculated the impact of social safety nets on manufacturing activities active in the provinces.
Businesses in the province of Lodi paid the highest price , recording a 156% increase: in the first half of the year, authorized hours more than doubled, from 207,702 to 532,706 (+325,000 hours). Cremona recorded the second-largest decrease (+80.5%), from 717,696 to 1,295,600 (+577,904 hours). Brescia came in third, where a 45.8% increase brought production hours cut from 9 million to more than 13 million, a record high in Lombardy.
Sondrio and Monza are also among the top five provinces. In Valtellina and Valchiavenna, redundancy payments exceeded the 562,000-hour limit, worsening the figure for the first half of 2024 by 39% (+157,000 hours). In Brianza, however, the increase was 29.7 % (+765,000), with 3,336,432 authorizations. The trend was similar in the Brianza Lecco area (+27.8%), where companies obtained 2,253,814 hours of redundancy payments (489,668). Companies in the Bergamo area, on the other hand, saw the use of redundancy payments increase by 16.9%, or 1,435,121 more hours: the total is nearly 10 million.
The variations in the other provinces were more limited : in Mantua, the 8% increase (+215,637) brought the total number of hours of redundancy payments in the first six months to almost 3 million, while in Milan the overall balance exceeded 9 million due to the 633,000 additional hours (+7.5%). Pavia and Como are the areas least affected by the productivity crisis: in Pavia, the 3.3% growth translated into an increase of 41,287 hours (1,287,810 the total between January and June), while Lario saw a 2.1% increase which in terms of hours translated into 92,254 more (4.5 million the overall figure). Varese is the only province in Lombardy to buck the trend . In the first half of the year, authorized hours of redundancy payments decreased by 5% (-375,719): social safety nets went from 7,447,853 to 7,072,134.
Il Giorno
