Work, wages have fallen by 2.9% in thirty years: Italy black shirt OECD. Seven out of ten time contracts

Precarious, with reduced hours even if not by will, poor with a trend in black jersey wages among the main advanced countries.

The Italian labor market still appears fragile and trapped in uncertainty: of the new contracts activated in 2021 only 14.8% were on permanent contracts while the fixed term concerned 69.8% of new activations. These are some of the numbers contained in the Inapp report 2022 it is no coincidence that it carries right from its title: “Low productivity, low wages and the chimera of sustainability”. Activations of stable contracts concerned 16.7% of total contracts in 2020 and 15.2% in 2019. In 2018, before the introduction of the dignity decree and the tightening on fixed-term hiring, permanent contracts were 14 , 6% of the total. The figure on the clear prevalence of fixed times is also affected by the fact that fixed-term contracts often have a very short duration and therefore a single worker in a year has several activations.

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Among the elements of fragility, INAP reports an Italian record: in 2021 involuntary part time (the share of workers who work part-time not by choice) represents 11.3% of the total number of workers against only 3.2% in the OECD area. At the same time, the trend towards reducing working hours does not seem to stop and the product per hour has been blocked since 2000 with respect to all countries, not just EU members, emerges from the report presented today to the Chamber of Deputies by President Inapp , Sebastiano Fadda.

THE poor workers in 2020 they represent 10.8% of the total. Poor work is growing according to Eurostat 2021 tables (provisional figure) at 11.7% compared to the EU27 average of 8.9%.

Our country – underlines the INAP – is the only one in the OECD area in which, from 1990 to 2020, the average annual real wage decreased (-2.9%) against increases of over 30% in France and Germany. Overall, atypical work (i.e. all forms of contract other than a full-time permanent employment contract) represents 83% of new hires with an increase of 34% in the last 12 years. “Despite some comforting signs – said Fadda – some weaknesses of our production system seem to have become chronic, with labor that appears trapped between low wages and low productivity. For this reason it is necessary to think of a ‘new season’ of employment policies, which aims at improving the quality of jobs, especially for new hires and for low-income workers, for precarious job positions and with few career opportunities, where women and young people are even more penalized “.

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“Labor productivity – it continues – has grown more than wages so not only has its dynamics been contained, but the mechanisms for linking wage levels to labor performance do not seem to have worked either”. According to the study, “good” flexibility led to stable employment three years after the start of precarious employment for about 35/40% of workers (in three time bands considered from 2008-2010 up to to 2018-2021) while a share between 30% and 43% continued to carry out precarious work, 16-18% lost their jobs and are looking for work while 17% left the labor market of the precarious (in 2010 it was 3%).

“8.7% of workers (subordinate and self-employed) – continues the Report – receive a gross annual salary of less than 10 thousand euros while only 26% declare annual incomes exceeding 30 thousand euros, very low values ​​if compared with those of other European workers. If we consider 40% of workers with the lowest income, 12% are unable to provide for a sudden expense independently, (therefore they have no savings or ability to obtain credit), 20% are able to cope with expenses up to 300 euros and 28% up to 800 euros. Almost one in three had to postpone medical treatment “.