In June 2017, exceeding the threshold of 23 million employed in Italy led to an almost complete recovery of the levels prior to 2008 and to a significant recomposition by age. Today more than 50% of those who have a job in Italy are over 45 years old, against a percentage which in 2008 reached only 37,2%. In the same period, the weight of 25-34 year olds increased from 24,7 to 17,9%.
In our country, the increase in employed persons largely concerned part-time jobs. Regardless of the type of contract, the weight of part-time workers rose from 2008 to 2017% between 14,7 and 18,7. In most cases, part-time work is involuntary: the share of workers who would like to have a full-time job rose from 38,2% in 2007 to 62,5% in 2016.
While the share of fixed-term contracts out of the total is in line with the euro area average, in Italy the weight of self-employed workers is very high, ie people who provide an employment service through external collaboration with the company. Although in sharp decline (-10,7% in the total number since 2008), this type of employment in our country involves just under one worker in four.
Like other OECD countries, in the last thirty years Italy has witnessed a contraction of medium-skilled job positions. In the most recent period, however, the Italian labor market has presented some peculiarities: between 2008 and 2017 both the weight of medium-skilled and highly-skilled employees decreased, while that of low-skilled employees increased from 20,4 to 28,1% thanks to an increase in employees in the service sectors, in particular personal services: waiters, bartenders, guides, hairdressers, cooks, cleaning and security personnel and above all sales personnel . A comparable increase in the weight of low-skilled occupations over the same period was recorded only in Greece.
According to the OECD, about 9% of current job positions in developed countries have a high probability of disappearing in the coming years due to the growing process of automation. Italy presents values in line with the average; however, if we refer to occupations that will require significant changes in the tasks to be performed, our country has much higher values: about 35% against 25% of the OECD average.
