Despite significant recent progress, Italy still lags behind many other OECD countries in terms of female and youth employment, and further progress is needed to fill the relatively high number of job vacancies.
So it appearedOECD Employment Outlook 2024 The Paris-based institute said that despite slowing economic growth since the end of 2022, employment, unemployment and inactivity in Italy’s labor market have reached record levels.
Real wages rise, but still making up for losses
In most OECD countries Actual salary They have increased year-on-year against a backdrop of falling inflation. However, in many other countries they remain below 2019 levels, as corporate profits begin to buffer some of the labor cost increases, even though real wages are recovering some of their losses. In many countries, profits have room to absorb further wage increases, especially as there are no signs of a price-wage spiral.
Left-handedItaly has seen the largest fall in real wages among the major economies in the OECD. As of early 2024, real wages are still 6.9% lower than before the pandemic.
The number of private sector employees covered by expired collective agreements fell to 16.7% in the first quarter of 2024 from 41.9% in the previous year, thanks to the renewal of major collective agreements, especially in the services sector. This helped drive a 2.8% year-on-year increase in negotiated wages.
Overall, Real wage growth The OECD says that this should be contained over the next two years. Nominal wages (compensation per employee) in Italy are expected to grow by 2.7% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025. While these increases are significantly lower than in most other OECD countries, they will allow Italian workers to recover some of their lost purchasing power. This is especially true given that inflation is expected to be 1.1% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025.
II unemployment rate In Italy, the share fell to 6.8% in May 2024, down 1 percentage point from May 2023 and 3 percentage points from before the COVID-19 crisis, but still above the OECD average of 4.9%. Total employment has also increased over the past year, up 2% year-on-year in May 2024. However, Italy’s employment rate remains well below the OECD average (62.1% and 70.2% in the first quarter of 2024).
The labor market is expected to continue to grow over the next two years: despite negative demographic developments, total employment is expected to increase by 1.2% in 2024 and by 1% in 2025.
Green drive engineering: Abruzzo leads the way
The OECD then highlighted that in Italy, 19.5% labor force employed in green-driven occupations. Of these, only 13.7% are truly “new or emerging green jobs”. In contrast, about 5.1% of employed people in Italy are in emission-intensive occupations. The highest share of green-driven jobs is in Abruzzo, while the highest share of greenhouse gas-intensive jobs is in Sardinia.