Istat: “In the second quarter 470 thousand workers lost between temporary workers and VAT numbers. Those under 35 years of age, women and workers from the South were the most affected”

“The dynamics of the labor market is affected, even more than in the last quarter, by considerable disturbances Induced byhealth emergency“This is Istat’s comment on the data on the evolution of employment in the second quarter of the year, between emergency shutdown and the “Phase 2Fortunately, these figures were surpassed by those of July, when there was a recovery. But precious to understand which categories have been overwhelmed, more than others, by the Covid crisis. Are the Young people, me precarious, he woman, VAT numbers, southern workers. “The gaps are increasing territorial participation in the labor market ”, comments the institute, and“ differences in kind“.

In the three months between April and June, in fact, the occupied decreased in 841,000 units compared to the same three months of 2019 and 470 thousand compared to the first quarter of 2020. And among these, almost half young people under 35. Those under 35 years of age lost 8% of their jobs going to 4,776,000 units, while the 35-49 year old class lost “only” 424,000 units (touching the 9,157,000 people) is that more than 50 he lost only 1,000 people reaching the height 8,780,000 employed (-0.4%)The unemployment rate in the range of 15 to 34 years is 16.3%, almost double the general rate, while inactivity reaches 53.3%. If we look at section 25-34, where they should have completed their studies and be active, the occupancy rate drops 2.5 points compared to the previous quarter to 59.8%. The unemployment rate fell 0.6 points to 12.8% while inactivity rose 3.4 points to 31.5%.

Downtime contracts and self-employed and stable workers increase – The fall involved i term contracts and the Independent work, while relationships establish have been safeguarded from layoffs blocking and the massive use of layoffs. Fixed-term employees fell by 677mila, -21.6%, and the self-employed continue to fall (-219 thousand, -4.1%) compared to a slight increase in permanent employees.

Collapse of hours worked – The decrease affects both full-time and part-time employees, for whom in 63.9% of cases, part-time is involuntary. And the number of employees they worked for is decreasing at least 36 hours a week (50.6%, -13.8 points), after sick leave due to viruses and the reduction in working hours linked to cig. Labor input, measured by hours worked, registered a strong decrease compared to both the previous quarter (-13.1%) and the same period of 2019 (-20%). Trends “consistent with the exceptional drop in economic activity, with a fall in GDP in the last quarter equal to 12.8% In economic terms “.

Big decline in the south – The employment rate seasonally adjusted, it fell to 57.6%, 1.2 points less, but for those under 35 years of age it fell much more: 2.2 points, to 39.1%. In addition, the decrease is greater in twelve (-1.6 points) compared to north and to Center (-1.1 and -0.9 points, respectively). “Territorial gaps in participation in the labor market increase: if the employment rate decreases in the same proportion in the North and in the South (-2 points in both cases) and somewhat less in the Center (-1.7 points ), the unemployment rate is higher in the South (-3.2 points) and in the Center (-3.0 points) compared to the North (-0.8 points) and is associated
all” most intense increase in the inactivity rate in the southern and central regions (+4.4 and +4 points) compared to the North (+2.7 points) “.

The gender gap widens – Not only that: with the pandemic, gender differences have increased again: among women it is the greater the drop in the employment rate (-2.2 points compared to -1.6 points for men) and unemployment (-2.3 and -1.9 points, respectively) together with the largest increase in inactivity (+3.9 and +3.2 points).

Unemployment is falling because inactive people are increasing – The result is that in the second quarter the unemployment rate He stood at8.3%, 0.9 points less compared to the first quarter and 2 points compared to the corresponding period last year. An optical illusion, of course, because it is associated with the increase, circumstantial and trend, of inactivity ratethat is, people who obviously stopped looking for work during the emergency. However, Istat recalls, “the provisional data for July 2020 indicate the recovery of the unemployment rate and the decline in the inactivity rate.”