An employment "bomb" hit Italy in the second quarter of 2020. The figure was certainly expected, but it is equally striking for its size: the number of employed people decreased by 470.000 compared to the first due to the health emergency and the lockdown quarter and of 841.000 units compared to the second quarter of 2019.About half of these places gone up in smoke are about young people aged between 15 and 34 (-416.000). The rest is striking the range between 35 and 39 years (-424.000). Only a thousand are over 50 years of age. This was revealed by Istat in the survey on job market emphasizing that the reduction is mainly due to the drop in fixed-term workers and the self-employed.
Compared to the second quarter of 2019, temporary employees decreased by 677.000 units (-21,6%) while independent employees lost 219.000 units (-4,1%) against -3,6% of total employment. Permanent employees increased on a year-on-year basis by 55.000 units (+0,4%). The freeze on layoffs was in force during the period. The employment rate between 15 and 64 years old drops to 57,6%. However, some positive signs emerge:
” In the provisional data for July 2020, net of seasonal factors and after four months of decline, the number of employed people is growing again (+85 thousand, +0,4%) compared to June 2020 and the employment rate goes back to 57,8, 0,2% (+XNUMX points in one month), measuring a positive reaction of the labor market to the recovery of economic activity levels”.
SOURCE: Istat
The unemployment rate fell in the second quarter to 8,3%, a drop of 0,9 points from the first quarter and two points from the second quarter of 2019. No wonder why the decline, recalls the Istat, is linked to the increase in inactivity due to the epidemiological emergency from Covid 19 and to the lockdown. The unemployed are 2.057.000. Inactive people between the ages of 15 and 64 increased by 5,5 percentage points compared to the first quarter and by 10 points compared to the previous quarter, reaching 14.183.000 units.
