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Millions of Italians trapped in low-paid, insecure work

Tuesday, 03 May 2022 3:43 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 03 May 2022 3:43 AM ]

Max Civili
Press Tv, Rome

On Monday, the national bureau of statistics, ISTAT, announced Italy's employment rate reached almost 60% in March, with more than 23 million people employed.

The figure is the highest since 2004, when the agency started to keep track of such records. This is as the country's economy is emerging from the Coronavirus pandemic, amid serious concerns over increasing energy prices.

Some trade unions have expressed skepticism about the way the data is gathered by the bureau of statistics.

Another point to consider is the definition of an employed person. For the majority of Western countries’ statistical agencies, working just one hour a week would be enough to be classified as an employed individual.

Another report made by research institute Censis and the UGL trade union shows that Italian salaries fell by over 8% in real terms between 2010 and 2020. The study has also highlighted the problem of in-work poverty in Italy.

Over 13% of employed workers and almost 8% of the self-employed had earnings below the poverty line in 2020, up to three percentage points compared to 2010.

Italy is one of the few European countries without a minimum wage. A boom in temporary and on-call contracts in recent years and fragmentation in union representation have led to an increase in badly paid, undignifying jobs.

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