The first, very weighty data on theimpact of the coronavirus emergency on the labor market. To reveal them is Istat, which delivers a worrying photograph of what happened in April, the month in which all of Italy was closed to try to contain the infections from Covid-19.
In April, the number of employed people fell by 274 compared to March. In percentage terms, this is a reduction of 1,2%. Women pay the highest price for the emergency (-1,5%, equal to -143 thousand), while for men the reduction is 1% (-131 thousand). Speaking instead of the nature of employment, despite the freeze on layoffs in force until mid-August, the most marked decrease concerns employees (-205 thousand employed, 1,1%), and in particular temporary employees, which in April recorded a decrease of 129 thousand units compared to -76 thousand of those employed with permanent contracts. Bad too the independents, which despite showing a drop of -69 thousand units, in percentage terms mark an even more significant reduction: -1,3% on March. By virtue of these data, the employment rate at 57,9% (-0,7 percentage points).
“As of April 2020 the effect of the COVID-19 emergency on the labor market appears decidedly more marked than in March – comments Istat in a note – employment recorded a decrease of almost 300 units, which in the two months led to an overall decrease of 400 employed persons and a percentage point in the employment rate. In just two months, the unemployment rate decreases by almost three percentage points and the inactivity rate increases by the same amount”.
In April, the number of unemployed also collapses, -484 thousand compared to March, while the unemployment rate drops to 6,3% and that of youth unemployment to 20,3%. Good news, then? No, because according to what Istat explains to determine the decline is the boom of the inactive, whose number last month increased by 746 thousand units (+5,4%). Simply put, the drop in unemployment is due to the fact that those who have lost their jobs and those who did not have one before are no longer even looking for one, discouraged by the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus.
The data provided by Istat for the February-April quarter are also worrying. Compared to the previous three months, in fact, the number of employed fell by 226 units, that of the unemployed by 497 units, while that of the inactive increased by 686 units.
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