Unemployment and underemployment: there are more than 20,000 young Italian domestic workers, 55.6% as housekeepers, 44.4% as carers

ROME – In Italy youth unemployment is among the highest in Europe and, in particular, in some areas of the country it reaches worrying levels. This inevitably produces phenomena of underutilization of a male or female worker engaged in an activity that does not exploit or value their skills. If at a national level the unemployment rate is equal to 29.7%, in Sicily the value reaches 48.8% and in Calabria it reaches 47%. In these areas, domestic work also becomes an important job opportunity for young people. The IV Annual Report on Domestic Work, edited by theDOMINA Observatory, highlights the growth of young people (under 30) in the domestic work sector. According to data updated to 2021, these are over 68,000 (regular) domestic workers, equal to 7.1% of the total. The historical series shows how the figure has started to grow again since 2020, after years in which there was a continuous decrease in the weight of young people.

Two opposing tendencies hidden in the phenomenon. These overall data hide two opposing trends, which are highlighted by considering Italian workers separately from foreign workers. The historical series clearly express the trends underway in the last ten years: in 2012 there were 14,000 “young” Italian domestic workers, in the last ten years the number has grown progressively in an almost linear manner, reaching over 20,000 in 2021 (+ 41%). The growth of young Italians in the domestic labor market is unequivocal and probably represents a new way to enter the labor market.

An opposite trend for foreign workers. Foreign workers, on the other hand, recorded an opposite trend from 2012 to 2019, of constant decline, reversed only in the last two years following the emergence procedures implemented to deal with the pandemic. Overall, the number of foreign workers decreased by 64% in the period 2012-2021. The drop in foreigners and the simultaneous increase in Italians had as a direct consequence the increase, as a percentage, of the native component, which rose from 9.9% to 29.9% of the total.

The characteristics of Italian domestic workers. Let us now see, therefore, the main characteristics of domestic workers with Italian nationality.

1 – These are 20,467 young domestic workers who were under the age of 30 in 2021.

2 – As regards the composition by gender and by type of relationship, women represent 83% of the total.

3 – 55.6% of Italian domestic servants work as cleaners, while 44.4% as carers.

4 – On average, they earn 3,600 euros a year, an average amount that derives both from reduced hours (56% work less than 19 hours a week) and from the duration of contracts for one worker out of two does not exceed 6 months. Only 6% exceed 10,000 euros in annual salary, after all only 9% work at least 35 hours a week.

5 – Most of these workers are found in the South 46%, where youth unemployment is a more entrenched phenomenon.

6 – At the regional level, the largest number of domestic workers of Italian nationality is concentrated in Sardinia (3.5 thousand), even more than in Lombardy (2.4 thousand) and Lazio (2 thousand). Despite being a much less populous region than the other two, this figure shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that 81.9% of domestic workers in Sardinia have Italian citizenship.

7 – If we then look at how the incidence of these workers on total Italian domestic workers changes, we see that in the southern areas it reaches 8.5% against 6% in the northern regions and 6.8% in the center ( national average 7.1%).

8 – The regions that record a record are Calabria (10.8%), Sardinia (8.9%) and Sicily (8.7). On the other hand, the phenomenon is very low in Veneto (5.1%), Friuli Venezia Giulia (5.5%) and Emilia Romagna (5.6%).

The situation for foreigners. The situation is different with regard to young foreign workers, who numbered over 48,000 in 2021. In most cases they are domestic cleaners (70%) and the gender analysis highlights the strong male presence (49%). Elements that highlight how the data is influenced by the recent regularization, in many cases domestic work is the gateway to regular work, but once the documents have been acquired, the migrants change economic sector-

Comparison with the Italians. Compared to Italians they earn more (€ 5,500), in fact 46% work from 25 to 29 weeks and 64% declared at least 6 average jobs in 2021. Unlike the Italians, they are located in the North (61%), a figure in line with the greater foreign presence in the regions of Northern Italy. While the regions with the highest incidence are Campania (9.4%), Calabria (9.1%) and Lombardy (8.8%).