Young people, NEETs are down but Italy is the worst EU country (after Romania) – Corriere.it

The NEETs, the kids who don’t study and don’t work, are declining in Italy. It would seem like good news were it not for the fact that our country has indicators of the well-being of young people with the lowest levels in Europe and remains among the countries with the highest number of “pending” young people. The alarm is sounded by Istat in the annual report on the situation of the country. The Institute notes a share of NEETs of 1.7 million, almost a fifth of those between 15 and 29 years old. In addition, in 2022, almost one in two boys between the ages of 18 and 34 has at least one sign of deprivation, 4 million and 870 thousand people.

The share of NEET falls to return to a level close to the low of 2007, but remains above the EU average by more than 7 points and lower only than Romania’s share. For Istat: “The causes of the phenomenon, although different in the different countries, can be traced back to the weakness of the professional training offer, the lack of effective active labor policies, and the scarce dynamism of the market”.

The Southern Question

The phenomenon affects girls to a greater extent (20.5%) and peaks are recorded in the southern regions (27.9%). Important quotas of foreigners also fall among the NEETs (28.8%). In Sicily, Italy’s black jersey region, young people “on hold” are almost a third of those aged between 15 and 29, while the share reaches the minimum value, 9.9%, in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

Who are the NEETs

The incidence of NEET decreases as the level of education increases: it is about 20% among young people with high school diplomas or with at most a middle school diploma, while it stops at 14% among university graduates. It is a phenomenon that is associated with a high youth unemployment rate (18%, almost 7 points higher than the European average), with a share of young people looking for work for at least 12 months three times (8.8%) compared to the European average (2.8%). About a third of NEETs (559,000) are unemployed, in half of the cases for at least 12 months (62.% in the South, against 39.5% in the North).

38% of NEETs (629,000) on the other hand are neither looking for work nor are they available to work immediately. The latter group is divided between those who are waiting to undertake a training course (47.5% among boys), those who declare reasons for caring for children or other non-self-sufficient family members (46.2% among girls) and who indicates health problems; only 3.3% say they have no interest in or need to work. Over three quarters of NEETs still live as a son or daughter in their family of origin and only a third have had previous work experience, a value that varies between 6.8% for those under the age of 20, 46.7% for those he is 25-29 years old.