IT
PRESS RELEASE
PRESENTATION OF THE PLUS REPORT
Inapp: “In Italy, 43.5% of new employment entries involve atypical contracts or informal agreements, compared to 18.7% in 2011.”
A SNAPSHOT OF CHANGES IN THE LABOUR MARKET OVER TEN YEARS
Natale Forlani: “A labour market with lights and shadows, but the time taken to find a job has significantly decreased, especially for young people.”
Rome, 30 May 2024 – The snapshot of the labour market between 2011 and 2022 presents a mixed picture. The temporal comparison highlights a strong stability in employment conditions: 98.9% of those employed in 2021 remained employed a year later, over 13 percentage points higher than the transitions observed between 2010-2011 (86.5%). At the same time, those remaining unemployed after twelve months increased from 58.4% in 2010-11 to 94.5% in 2021-22. Additionally, while 10.6% of inactive individuals or students entered the labour market in 2010-11, this percentage dropped to 0.4% after a decade.
This is what emerges from the latest Plus Report presented today in Rome by Inapp (National Institute for Public Policy Analysis) during a conference.
The observation of wage trends suggests a similar scenario. Women entering the labour market for the first time in 2022 experienced an average salary increase of 23.4% compared to 2011, bringing the percentage of women earning a net annual salary of less than 8,000 euros down to 15.6% from 39.2% in 2011. However, the male component shows strong stagnation: the average salary condition for men entering the labour market for the first time in 2022 is slightly lower than in 2011 (-1.8%).
The job search duration among the unemployed has significantly reduced between 2011 and 2022, especially among young people and those under 50. While 18-29-year-olds waited over 22 months on average to find a job in 2011, this waiting period was reduced by two-thirds to 7 months in 2022. A similar reduction is observed among 30-49-year-olds, though with lesser intensity, especially among men (from 30 to 24 months for men and from 44 to 12 months for women). This sign of labour market dynamism is also associated with a significant increase in the number of people with tertiary education among the unemployed and inactive: the percentage of graduates among the unemployed increased by nearly 8 percentage points (from 9.2% to 17%), while among the inactive it more than doubled, from 12.8% to 27.9%.
A critical issue is precisely the way people find jobs. Informal channels and, in particular, acquaintances remain the main gateway to employment: friends and relatives, and self-applications are how 77% of those who were unemployed and inactive in 2021 found a job within a year. Informality also affects job contract stability: 43.5% of new employment entries during the same period were through informal agreements, intermittent work, or even with no knowledge of the contract type (18.7% in 2011), with an additional 22.3% (23.8% in 2011) being temporary jobs. Permanent job entries stood at 30.5% (compared to 26.2% in 2011).
This situation particularly affects young people, especially during the delicate transition from school to work. Young people aged 18-29 mainly complain about the poor quality of job offers: one in two says the offers are short-term or underpaid, 37% (rising to 45% among 18-24-year-olds) say the offers involve modest tasks and risk underemployment, while 36.5% state there are no adequate job placement services and that they felt alone in the transition from school to work.
Nevertheless, young people actively seek work, especially through formal channels: between 2020 and 2022, almost 14% of 18-29-year-olds visited an employment centre (compared to 8.2% of 30-49-year-olds); a slightly lower percentage (12.6%) turned to employment agencies (7.7% among 30-49-year-olds) and more than one in ten contacted recruitment and selection companies (6.4% for 30-49-year-olds).
When young people do find work, it does not always align with their educational qualifications: about 20% of 18-29-year-olds (13% of workers aged 50 and over and 17% among 30-49-year-olds) feel overqualified, compared to an average of 16%.
This professional dissatisfaction also translates into a desire to leave work, with 19.4% of employees aged 18 to 29 considering resignation. This signal of widespread discomfort affects 14.6% of the total employed population. People are primarily fleeing jobs that demand a lot in terms of daily commitment but do not offer adequate pay, job security, career growth, or flexible working hours. One significant statistic: the intention to leave work reaches 34% among those who do unpaid overtime.
“The changes in labour market transitions between 2011 and 2022,” said Natale Forlani, President of Inapp, “must be assessed considering the evolution of demographic trends and the characteristics of employment growth in the second decade of the 2000s. The reduction in the working-age population explains the improved job entry times for young people and the unemployed, and the improved salary conditions for women. The growth of employment in many tertiary sectors, characterised by fixed-term, seasonal, and part-time work, does not adequately value educational pathways and increases work dissatisfaction in roles requiring high daily commitment but lacking in adequate remuneration and job security. These are critical issues that need to be addressed with medium and long-term policies aimed at wage growth, improving work organisation, and valuing workers’ skills.”
For more information: Inapp Presidency
Email: [email protected] – Tel: 06 85447700
