Italy continues to age and this process has serious repercussions on the labor market. According to a recent report by INAPP (National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies), in the last 20 years the weight of the over 50s on the total employed population Italian almost doubled, passing from 21,6% in 2002 to 38,5% in 2020, 5 points above the EU27 average (33,9%). Proportionally, the growth was greater among women (+20%) than among men (+15%).
At the same time, too on the total number of unemployed the share of over 45s continued to grow, reaching 2020% of the total in 33,4. Among people actively looking for a job, on the other hand, those over 45 were 32%.
After all, Italy is also the country of the European Union with the highest percentage of over 65s, who represent 23,5% of the population (the over-7,6s, on the other hand, are 46%). In short, the pandemic has not slowed down the aging process of Italian society, whose average age is now XNUMX years.
Absolute poverty halved among the over 65s
The report also shows that state-paid pensions - in addition to having caused a prolonged permanence in the labor market with the progressive raising of the retirement age - have contained poverty in the elderly population.
Between 2005 and 2020, the incidence of relative poverty among the over 65s it remained more or less constant (around 5%), while that of absolute poverty she halved, falling from 15% in 2002 to 7,6% in 2020.
In parallel, the percentage of those who are exempt from the risk of poverty (from 88,5% in 2010 to 92,4% in 2020). An increasingly large number of elderly people live in autonomous and independent life solutions (+3,31%) and in constantly improving health conditions; the percentage of healthy years on life expectancy after age 55 increased for both genders by 9,1 points, despite the impact of the pandemic.
Family welfare increasingly widespread
In this context, the older generations continue to be the pillar of informal welfare, helping families both financially and in caring for grandchildren or other children (+4,3% compared to 2010).
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