Low productivity weighs on Italy's prospects. Despite the ongoing recovery, the Italian economy lacks 6 percentage points in terms of GDP to return to 2008 levels, while the other main European countries recovered what they lost previously. A criticality, also evident in the prospects for development, which comes from afar, but on which the crisis has played a decisive role.
The disappointing dynamics of labor productivity is one of the factors that helps explain the delay accumulated over the years. in 2016, in Italy, 1.500 million people were employed to produce just over 24,8 billion euros of added value. Each worker was able to produce an average of 60.810 euros of wealth, against 65 in Germany and 72 in France, despite the higher number of hours worked. In 2016, an employed Italian worked an average of 1.725 hours, 222 more than a Frenchman and 367 more than a German.
Moving from value added per person employed to value added per hour worked, the delay therefore becomes even wider. In 2016, every employee in Italy produced on average 35 euros of added value for each hour worked, against the almost 50 achieved in both France and Germany. The gap appears wider in the manufacturing, where the 36 Italian euros are compared with the 55 French and 60 Germans. The Italian figure is weighed down by a sectoral composition characterized by a greater concentration in sectors with a production structure with lower added value. In the services the situation, however, is better, with financial and insurance activities reaching values slightly higher than those of the other two European economies.
In Italy, the gap in terms of productivity develops in a differentiated manner at the territorial level. The added value per employee reaches 70 euros Lombardia, surpassing the German data and approaching the French one. On high levels also the Trentino Alto Adige, Liguria, Valle d'Aosta and Emilia Romagna. Far from the national average, on the other hand, Molise, Puglia and Calabria. Even at the regional level, considering the added value per hour worked, the distance widens, pushing Lombardy away from the German and French values.
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