1. Data on employability in Italy
The overall unemployment rate in Italy declined to 10.8% in December 2017 (-0.1 percentage
points compared to November). The ISTAT reports it in the provisional figures. This is the lowest
level since August 2012. The unemployed are 2 million 791 thousand. The unemployment rate of
young people between 15 and 24 years in December 2017 falls to 32.2% (-0.2 points on
November). This is the lowest level since January 2012.
The employment rate drops to 58.0% (-0.2 percentage points).
On an annual basis, on the other hand, the increase in employment (+ 0.8%) is confirmed, equal to
+173.000. But the annual growth is concentrated among the temporary workers (+303.000) while
the self-employed workers fall (-105.000) and to a lesser extent the permanent ones (-25.000).
WOMEN:
In January 2018, female employment reached a historical record, rising to 49.3%. The ISTAT notes
it, adding that on the other hand the rate of inactivity of women fell to 43.7%, even in this case an
absolute minimum.
However, the employment rate of women remains almost 20 percentage points lower than that of
men (67%).
According to Eurostat data, Italy is at the bottom of the European standards (only Greece is
worse). If we analyze the latest Eurostat data, the one referring to the first quarter of 2017, on the
female employment front, Italy remains in the last places: its 48.2% is more than just 43.3% of the
Greece. Far from 61.6% of the average of the 28 European countries. And even more so from the
records of Sweden (74.6%), Norway (71.9%) and Germany (71.0%).
Difficult family-work relationship
The difficulty of reconciling work with the family weighs on Italian women's employment figures:
in 2016 - according to the latest figures of labor inspectorates – 30.000 women have resigned
from their workplace on maternity leave . According to ISTAT in Italy there are 22.5 places in
nursery for every 100 children between 0 and 3 years, well below the 33 places indicated as a
strategic objective by the European Union.
A framework that does not improve if it stops us to look at women driving a company. It is true
that female-driven enterprises have increased from 1,308,566 on 31st March 2016 to 1,316,017
on 31st March 2017 (Infocamere data). But women in charge of a company are still only 21.8%.
NEET
Almost one in five young people in Italy, in the age range between 15 and 24, does not have and
looks for a job or is engaged in a course of study or training. Italy boasts one of the highest rates of
NEET in Europe: 19.9% compared to an average of 11.5% in the continent. This is one of the data
emerging from the 2017 survey on employment and social developments in Europe (ESDE)
published by the Commission.
The study also notes that Italy is also the country where the number of self-employed workers is
among the highest in Europe (more than 22.6%), the difference between men and women who
work is 20.1%, and the number of people living in extreme poverty (11.9%) increased between
2015 and 2016, the only case in the EU with Estonia and Romania.
Furthermore, those, between 25 and 39 years, who can find a job in more than 15% of cases have
atypical contracts. In the United Kingdom it is less than 5% (2014 data) Also, if you are less than 30
years old in Italy, you earn on average less than 60% of an over-60-year-old worker. That is why
young Italians leave the family home and have children between 31 and 32 years: much later than
2. a decade ago and long after the EU average, which is around 26 years.
According to data from an ad hoc survey conducted by the Catholic University in 2017, in Italy
there are over 2 million, with the Lombardy region in first place with over 16 per cent of young
people who do not participate in education or training and are not even doing a job.
The composition of the Neet is very heterogeneous: it goes from the new graduate with high
motivation and high potential that is actively looking for a job in line with their expectations
(before eventually realigning down with what the market offers), up to the young early school
leavers who fell into a spiral of marginality and demotivation.
The high number of Neet derives in large part from the inefficiencies in the school-work transition.
In particular, in Italy many young people leaving the training system find themselves lacking
adequate skills and lacking the experience required by companies. According to the data of the
Youth Report, less than 40% of respondents (aged 20-35) consider the school useful to find an
employment more easily and less than 33% found in the school knowledge and information useful
to understand how it works the world of work. Less than 10% of the interviewees, moreover,
declare that they have found work through employment services. 44% of those who are
employed carry out an activity that is not very consistent with their own training.
AGE IN WHICH YOUNGSTERS ENTER THE JOB MARKET
The principle according to which the minimum age for admission to work can not be less than the
age in which the compulsory schooling ceases (art. 37 constitution) applies. This is precisely the
principle that has been expressed by the 2007 Budget Law (296/2006), in particular where it is
stated that the raising of the compulsory education to at least 10 years determines as a
"consequence" the increase from 15 to 16 years of age for access to work.
Work school transition and real age of entry into the world of work:
An authoritative OECD study reports that in Italy the duration of the transition from the
education system to a permanent job is equal to 44.8 months.
The time it takes to get a bachelor's degree is one of the longest in the world. Also, according to
data from the Ministry of Education, about 50 percent of students who enroll at university leave
without completing their studies. However, many of them remain enrolled for years and
sometimes manage to graduate even after a very long period of time. About 40 percent of
graduates receive a diploma with a delay of between one and ten years compared to the
curricular path envisaged by 3 + 2. According to AlmaLaurea data, the average age at graduation
for students starting at the age of 18 is 24 years for those who have undertaken the three-year
course and 26.1 years for those who also choose the “laurea specialistica which corresponds to
the 2 years master”
This means that if a young person graduates with a master's degree at 27-28 years, he must
calculate that he finds a more or less stable job at 32-33 years, based on the 45 months of
transition calculated by the OECD. In England, there is a degree at the age of 21 and there is a
stable job at 21.5 years. At 32-33, the young Italian of the same age has already acquired ten years
of work experience and his human capital is much higher than that of an Italian of the same age.
WORKS REQUIRED BY BUSINESSES:
Despite a still high unemployment rate, in Italy 28% of companies, almost one in three, find it
difficult to find workers with the right skills.
The most Required works are (data from 2017):
3. Machinists
New entry compared to last year, the first place among the most requested jobs are the train
drivers, the skilled workers who coordinate and regulate the production processes.
Secretaries and management assistants
Compared to 2016, secretaries, management assistants, administrative assistants and back office
staff rose from third to second.
Specialized technicians
We find again on the podium in 2017 also the specialized technicians who work for the correct
operation of the technical equipment.
Salespeople
Stable in fourth place, the sales staff: clerks and orders, cashiers and cashiers and store managers.
This category of workers is also the second most demanded in the world in 2017, according to the
Manpower survey.
Accounting and finance professionals
The company's request for business finance professionals, accountants, accountants and financial
analysts is growing.
IT professionals
IT also sees its employees growing above all for start-up programmers and for those involved in
developing mobile applications.
Educators and trainers
The demand for experts in the field of education and training is growing in 2017, both in the public
and in the private sector.
Sales manager
The business world, on the other hand, continues to need commercial professions. In particular,
companies are asking for these new profiles: the e-mail marketing manager, who takes care of
retaining customers in a company or finding others through campaigns carried out by sending e-
mails. Secondly, in the second position, the Sales Lead Generation, which manages the sale of
email marketing projects for the acquisition of profiled contacts of potential customers.
Experts in the digital sector and new technologies:
Chief digital officer, who coordinates digital processes and transformation and promotes digital
culture in the company.
Doctors
The doctors also appear in the top ten positions. Among the motivations are the generational
change of doctors and the progressive aging of the population.
Hotel staff and restaurant staff
Tourism is still a sector that "pulls" and can offer various employment opportunities, especially in
the hotel and catering sectors: chefs, waiters, barmen and receptionists
4. TYPES AND REGULATIONS OF INTERNSHIPS:
Alma Laura 2018 report on the employment status of graduates emphasizes that all work
experience done during or immediately after the conclusion of the studies, involves a probability
of finding work after graduation greater than 51% compared to those who have neither alternated
nor internships or traineeships. Not only that: the probability of finding work goes up to 90% for if
we consider the work experience carried out in the form of internships in the company after
graduation.
Often, AlmaDiploma records, work experience is not an end in itself and results in a working
relationship with the company in which it took place even after maturity.
School-work alternation: it is an innovative training experience, which opens the school to the
world of work and integrates knowledge and know-how, a path regulated by "educational
agreements" with schools, which requires a strong organizational commitment on the part of all
the actors involved: schools, host structures and even students. Law 107/2015 cd. "La Buona
Scuola", foresees that the students of the last three years of high school, realize a practical
practical experience in the world of work, lasting 400 hours for technical and professional
institutes and 200 hours for high schools, to support the theoretical school preparation.
INTERNSHIPS:
• Intenship foreseen by university study plan “curriculare”: addressed to students enrolled and
attending an education or training course at secondary and tertiary level (post-graduate
professional training courses, three-year, master's and specialist degrees, doctorates, university
masters or realized by accredited training institutes) and more generally, training courses that
issue a title or certification with public value, which include a period of training within the study
plan. Fees are not foreseen, interns can only get expense reimbursements.
• This name derives from the fact that in recent years within the training plans of the university
faculties - but not only - have been more and more frequently inserted compulsory placements for
the student's curriculum studiorum, often with a specific value of cfu (university training credits).
2) extra-curricular internship: training aimed at new graduates and recent graduates of up to six
months, activated within twelve months from the graduation.
This differentiation has only recently been institutionalized, indicatively starting from 2012. The
so-called "curricular" internships are those that are carried out during a course of study (in most
cases, while doing the university). The extracurricular internships are all the others. ln January
2013, the State-Regions Conference issued a document called "Guidelines", which outlines the
regulatory framework, also indicating an indication of the minimum figure - € 300 per month -
that each Region must foresee as a compulsory indemnity in favor of all extracurricular interns.
"Work placement / reintegration": this type of internship is accessible to all those who are
unemployed or unemployed, regardless of their age.
It is important to notice that the current legislation does not limit the age of the interns; in fact,
the internship (unfortunately) is very often used in Italy as a tool for "re-integration" of the
unemployed, as well as income support when the compensation for the internship is added to the
unemployment benefit.
There are also professional internships (praticantato) for some so-called "regulated" professions,
which are about 150: the most classic are the lawyer and the accountant, but also journalists and
notaries, engineers and surveyors, architects and pharmacists, all medical specialties, etc. These
5. internships are compulsory to access the exam (“esame di abilitazione”) for working in that
specific profession.
NON FORMAL EDUCATION RECOGNITION
Activities in the youth field are more and more focused on employability and better transition
from school into the labour market and to reingrate young people who are neither studying not
working. One of the main objectives of Erasmus Plus – Youth strand is to improve the level of key
competences and skills of young people, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour
market.
The Erasmus Plus programme itself entitle the participants to its activities to get the Youthpass
certificate, which despite being recognized in several other European countries and guaranteeing
for example formative credits of the formal educational system to those taking part in non-formal
education opportunities, in Italy does not entitle to no formal recognition.
Nonetheless, there are some positive experience and best practices to be mentioned such as the
agreement between the Association TDM 2000 and the University of Cagliari which was very
much appreciated by the Italian National Agency as a NFE recognition model to be spread at the
national level.
There is also an Italian University Network for Lifelong Learning: each university establishes if and
how many credits to give to the non formal learning experiences gained by the student.
Even the youth work in Italy does not yet have a specific connotation or a specific definition of
the law.
The Italian National Youth Forum has already planned a series of lobbying activities in this regard,
such as the promotion of a Position Paper that takes more into account non-formal education with
the major Italian institutions, in agreement with the European strategy in this regard. The Italian
version of the publication of the European Youth Forum "Recognition of non-formal education in
the youth sector: recommendations and success factors" , the realization of a survey on the
correlation between Non-formal education and skills that can be spent in the workplace /
profession and the creation of a law proposal on the recognition of non-formal education at
national level.
The 2012 Council Recommendation proposes a systematic approach to validation, to give more
visibility and value to learning achieved outside formal educational and training contexts. A key
objective of the 2012 Recommendation is for Member States to cooperate on national validation
arrangements by 2018 for everyone to be recognized and certified for learning in non-formal and
informal settings.
SUPPORT AT LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL
On May 1, 2015 the new unemployment benefit, called Naspi, came into force, replacing the old
Aspi (Social Insurance for Employment). The allowance is paid to employees who have
involuntarily lost their employment and in particular to the following categories:
- temporary employees of Public Administrations;
- apprentices;
- working members of cooperatives with a subordinate employment relationship;
- artistic personnel with a subordinate employment relationship.
- The maximum limit is of € 1,300 (about 75% of the average salary received by the person)
It is not possible to receive unemployment benefits for more than 2 years
The status of unemployed has been certified by the Center for employment: the person has to
6. demonstrate that he/she did not work for 30 days in the 12 months before the unemployment
status.
JOBS ACT 2015 - MAIN NOVELTIES
• Stable contracts: Fixed-term contracts are promoted to increasing protections, making them
more convenient for companies than other types of contracts, in terms of direct and indirect costs.
• Dismissals and reintegration: for new hires with permanent contracts with increasing
protections, reintegration is only foreseen in the case where dismissals are discriminatory and
regulate if the worker can prove that the reason given by the company for disciplinary dismissal
does not exist. In the case of justified disciplinary dismissal or dismissal for economic reasons, the
reintegration is replaced only by cash compensation, which will increase with the seniority of the
employee in the company.
• Unemployment treatment: the duration of unemployment treatment will be related to the
"contributory record" of the unemployed person.
Less types of contracts: Those types of contracts that are more precarious and more permeable to
abuses such as project collaboration contracts, were abolished. On the other hand there are the
apprenticeship contracts, the short term contracts (extendable up to 5 times for a maximum of 36
months) and the contracts for self employed workers with VAT.
Welfare measures to encourage work reintegration funded by the European Social Fund:
Regions or autonomous provinces give free access to the unemployed people (enrolled in
employment centers) to medium-long training courses that provide a theoretical and a practical
part (200/400 or 600 hours)
It is, however, necessary to attend at least 80% of the hours to receive a certificate.
RETIREMENT
From 2018 there will be no difference between workers and workers: both will be able to leave
work at 66 and 7 months.
The age for old-age pension between men and women is therefore equalized.
This concludes the path launched years ago following the ruling by the EU Court of Justice of
November 13, 2008, which had been deemed illegitimate the differentiated requirements
between women and men (60 and 65 years) then provided for retirement of public employees.
Following this decision, the Italian Government then decided to equalize the minimum required by
both sexes. An increase in the retirement age to which from 2019 will be added that of 5 months
linked to the increase in life expectancy. For women, the age of retirement between 2010 and
2019 will increase by 7 years.
In Italy the age for access to the retirement pension will be the highest in Europe and the gap will
increase again in 2019 with the transition to 67 years.
The Rules in force in 2018
In compulsory public pensions (ie the one managed by INPS) the requirements for retirement
placement, after 2011, are mainly determined by two pension benefits: the retirement pension
and the early retirement pension.
In general, in 2018, “retirement pension” age requires at least 66 years and 7 months of age and
20 years of contributions (both for men and women in the public and private sectors).
For “early retirement”, on the other hand, 41 years and 10 months of contributions are required
(42 years and 10 months for men) regardless of their age.
7. BEST PRACTICES: ENTREPRENEURIAL SECTOR – INNOVATIVE STARTUPS
At 30 June 2017 the number of startups in Italy was 7,394, an increase of 514 units compared to
the end of March (+ 7.5%).
At the end of the month the number was even higher: 7,709.
This reality is equal to 0.46% of the over 1.6 million companies operating in Italy.
Data updated in the second half of 2017 with share capital of € 373.6 million, on average € 50.519
per company. 70.6% of startups in Italy work in the services sector (30.8%, R & D activities, 13.9%,
information services activities, 8.9%).
19.6% operate in industrial sectors in the strict sense: 3.6%, of computers and electronic products
and 3.4%, of electrical equipment (2%), while 4% work in commerce.
By analyzing the geographical distribution, in absolute terms Lombardy is the region in which the
largest number of startups is located: 1,694, equal to 22.9% of the national total. Emilia Romagna
follows with 808 (10.9%), Lazio with 719 (9.7%), Veneto with 637 (8.6%) and Campania, the first
region of Southern Italy with 547 (7.4%) ). At the bottom of the ranking, Basilicata with 56, Molise
with 27 and Valle d'Aosta with 15.
The region with the highest incidence of innovative startup in relation to joint-stock companies is
Trentino Alto Adige (1.07%). Marche followes by 0.86%, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Emilia Romagna
with 0.72% and Valle d'Aosta with 0.7%. Tuscany with 0.32% and Lazio, with 0.26%.
Milan is the province where the highest number of innovative companies is located: at the end of
June 2017 a 1.160 (15.7% of the national total) settled. Rome followed with 625 (8.5%), Turin with
285 (3.9%), and Naples with 262 (3.6%). All the other provinces in the top ten, in the order of
Bologna, Padua, Modena, Bari, Trento and Florence, are well above the 100 units.
If we consider the number in relation to the joint-stock companies in the province, Trieste is now
in first place with 142 startups for every 10,000 companies. Trento follows with 136, Ascoli Piceno
with 128, Ancona with 113, Rimini with 98.