They don’t study, they don’t work, they don’t train. In Italy, 3 million young people are stuck in an intergenerational deadlock that leaves them inactive between the ages of 15 and 34 and largely dependent on their families of origin.. Discouraged first by the pandemic and now by the economic hardship caused by the war and the high cost of living, I NEET (not in the field of education, employment or training) represent a significant part of the young population in a country on the way to progressive demographic aging and a falling birth rate, which puts us in first place in the world after Japan. An alarming picture characterized by territorial, gender and civic disparities, as evidenced by the ActionAid and CGIL report “Nit Between Inequality and Gap. In search of a new public policy”.
The study shows that Italy is the European country with the highest number of NEETs, of which more than half are women: 1.7 million out of 3 million.. The incidence is reported to be higher in Southern Italy, where young people who are neither studying nor working account for 39%, compared with 23% in Central Italy, 20% in the Northwest and 18% in the Northeast. The worst figures were recorded in Sicily (40.1%), Calabria (39.9%) and Campania (38.1%). In Central Italy, Lazio has the highest incidence of about 25.1%, while the first region in the north for NEET is Liguria (21.1%), followed by Piedmont (20.5%) and the Aosta Valley (19 .6%).
Lack of activity, as expected, mainly affects women (56%), whose presence has remained unchanged over the years., demonstrating how it is more difficult for the female sex to get out of this state, including due to cultural stereotypes. It is no coincidence that 26% of NEETs are parents, of which 23% are mothers, and only 3% are fathers. An abyss that shows how often, for women, inactivity is dictated by gender disparities in care workloads that prevent or encourage women to stay on the sidelines or withdraw from the labor market. Another disparity concerns the complex issue of immigration. There are fewer young NEETs of foreign origin or without Italian citizenship than Italians (18% of the total), but even among them there are more women (57%). In absolute terms, NEETs with foreign citizenship with only a high school diploma account for 48.4%. A fact that should make us think about what kind of reception and integration we can (not) guarantee to people arriving in our country.
Who are NEETs?
But who are, in fact, NEET? The analysis of the data made it possible to identify some sub-categories that say a lot about the Italian social structure. In the first cluster I Teenagers out of school they are between 15 and 19 years old, have a high school diploma, have dropped out of school and have never had any work experience. They do not receive subsidies and are completely dependent on the family. This is a rather residual group, but crossing all of Italy. Then there is in young people aged 20 to 24, have higher education, have no previous work experience and are looking for their first job. I am in a single parent family and I am mostly in the south. This is a large category of young people who cannot enter the labor market.
Then there is former employee looking for a new job: they are 25 to 29 years old, they have lost or quit their jobs for various reasons and are now looking. These are mostly men with a high level of education, living in the central regions and receiving unemployment benefits. Finally, there is discouraged, young people aged 30 to 34 with previous work experience who are currently inactive. They live in the North and in remote areas and are mostly female. All these young people need a boost in self-confidence, which in particular can be expressed in greater attention to the local area in order to avoid leaving school early, in training courses to facilitate entry (or return) to the labor market and reduce corporate taxes to facilitate recruitment.
Source: Elle