Italian wages remain among the lowest in the OECD area. This was revealed by the Employment Report published today by the Parisian organization which estimates a 33.849 dollars the average real annual Italian salary at purchasing power parity, a figure down by 1,9% on an annual basis and almost 10 dollars lower than the 43.523 dollars of the OECD average. Among the thirty countries taken into consideration, Italy ranks twentieth for wages.
Between 2007 and 2012 Italian wages have known a decline of 0,4%, against an area average that grew by 0,3%. After the 1,6% drop in 2011, the unit labor cost decreased by 0,5% in 2012. Also the hours worked per person per year decreased, from an average of 1.772 last year to 1.752. In 2007 there were 1.816.
Things are not going better as regards unemployment: for Italy, the OECD forecasts a continuous worsening of the jobless rate, which will rise to 12,6% (from 12,2%) for the fourth quarter of 2014, in contrast with the prospects of the area which, according to the report, should see its unemployment rate drop to 7,8% from the current 8%.
The most difficult situation in Italy is that of young people (15-24 year olds), whose percentage of unemployed has grown by 6,1% since 2007, due to the increase in NEETs, kids who are neither work or school. In this case, it is the third worst performance in the OECD area, behind only Greece and Turkey.
