As the country ages, it's not looking good for young people. The crisis has brought employment rates to those of 2000: in two years the jobs produced in a decade (a good 532 units) were burned. Of these, 90% concerned the under 30s. A collapse that is recorded above all among the less educated young people. The gender gap, on the other hand, narrows as education increases and tends to disappear after graduation. This is the not very encouraging balance drawn up today by the president of Istat, Enrico Giovannini, speaking at the traditional conference organized by the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria in Santa Margherita Ligure.
Giovannini focused on the "purgatories" in which today's Italian youth remains suspended. The first on the list is that of the so-called "atypical work" (term jobs and collaborations). Considering that in the future the number of children will tend to decrease, while that of the elderly will grow, one wonders how we will manage to support the imbalance if only a very few can count on a permanent job. But there is at least one counterforce to be aware of. The aging of the Italian population will be partially offset by immigrants, whose share will increase over the next 40 years from 7 to 17%.
The second scourge is that of the "under-worked" young people, that is to say those who have a higher educational qualification than that required for the job they carry out. The phenomenon "implies a strong loss of income - explains Giovannini - and is increasing: we have gone from 15,4% in 2004 to 21,1% in 2010".
Finally, the nightmare of young people "Neet", an English acronym that stands for "those who don't work and don't study". According to the president of Istat, “in Italy there are 2,1 million young players on the bench who lose part of the training they have acquired every day. But it's not about big babies: most of them are ready to work”.
As for young entrepreneurs, "they are becoming a rare commodity", underlines Giovannini. Sole proprietorships with owners under 40 in 2009 accounted for less than a third of the total. Furthermore, among our budding businessmen, foreigners represent 10-12%, while among older colleagues the share is 6%.
