Employment centers? Nah, better friends and relatives. Only a quarter of Italian unemployed (25,9%), in fact, look for work through public employment centres, while more than eight out of ten they turn to friends, relatives and acquaintances (84,3%). This can be read in the Eurostat data on job search channels in the third quarter of 2015. The statistical institute nails the Italian relational capitalism (antichamber of nepotism and recommendation): in Germany, for example, the percentages are almost reversed, with 75,8% of the unemployed turning to public employment centers and just 39,6% asking acquaintances.
Expanding the analysis to the 28 countries of the European Union a figure slightly closer to the Italian one emerges: on average, 46,7% of the unemployed use public employment centres, while as many as 71,1% admit that they also or only ask relatives and friends. However, the Italian figure has worsened, according to what has always been noted by Eurostat, with the crisis: in the third quarter of 2007, 74% of the unemployed were looking for work through acquaintances, ten points less than the most recent data available. However, it should be added that the percentage of those who turned to employment centers was also lower (23,5% in Italy compared to 60,3% in the EU and 89,4% in Germany again in 2007) . In short, there is less work, therefore more is sought: using all possible ways, even better if shortcuts.
Indeed, Eurostat data shows that in Italy trust in job centers is the lowest in all of Europe. Only Turkey is worse. The country where knowledge is used the most in job searches is Greece (94,5%, almost ten points more than in 2007), while the country where informal channels are used the least is Sweden (25,3 %). Looking at a European country even if outside the EU, in Switzerland the unemployed use friendship channels only in 17,9% of cases.
