On September 25, Michael Kors ($KORS) bought out Versace for $2 billion, resulting in a marriage of two luxury fashion brands at different ends of the spectrum under newly named Capri Holdings Limited.
At the time, Donatella Versace, the sister of Versace's late founder Gianni and the company's creative director, heralded the acquisition as great news not only for Versace, but for Italy. “We will create new jobs and we will be a stimulus for economic development in the territories where we work,” she said to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
As of today, Michael Kors is hiring for 24 jobs in Italy.
Since the acquisition, Michael Kors had as many as 32 job listings for positions located in Italy, While this recent hiring streak is notable, it is comparable to hiring spikes seen in late October 2017 and in the late April/early May period this year. In other words, Michael Kors is looking for more people in Italy relatively speaking, but, at least on their careers website, not a substantial amount compared to previous hiring sprees.
Furthermore, the company is hiring employees to positions that are not full-time. Rather, it is looking for mostly seasonal, part-time, and/or temporary employees to help with the holiday season at its retail locations. Comparing all job listings with only part-time openings shows a startling trend for job prospects in Italy, especially given the state of the country's economy:
Italy is the latest EU country to face a host of issues; its economy is stagnating, its debt to GDP ratio is at 133% — second only to Greece, the last Mediterranean country to fall on hard times — and its unemployment rate recently rose over 10%. And as the dangers of underemployment are being realized in other Western countries, part-time positions in Italy may not be enough to stimulate economic development.
Of course, as it is only about a month since Versace acquisition happened, there is plenty of time for Capri Holdings to start rallying towards a massive Italian hiring spree.
