MILANO – Since 1995, Southern Italy has taken on 1.6 million young people while employment has grown four times slower than the national average. These are the data highlighted by the analysis of Confcommercio on the economy and employment in the South. In detail, from 1995 to 2020 Italy lost a total of 1.4 million young people: from just over 11 million to just under 10 million. All this loss – it is explained is due to the young southerners, sciesi of 1.6 million units. “In these conditions and extrapolating these trends – observes Confcommercio – even the possible and unlikely rapid resolution of the productivity problem could be insufficient to improve the process of building economic and social well-being in our South, at least in aggregate terms”.
Istat, the number of people employed fell in July. Youth unemployment drops to 27.7%
by Flavio Bini
The figure relating to the labor market is also dramatic. Between 1995 and 2019, employment growth in the South was 4.1% against 16.4%, with even greater distances than in the Central and Northern regions. According to the study, not even the particular tourist vocation of the southern regions would seem to help boost the economy of this area, given that, even compared to a “normal” year like 2019, the consumption of foreign tourists in the South was much lower than what was spent in the Central and North-Eastern regions.
The huge gap in terms of wealth is also confirmed. In just over twenty years (1995-2020), the percentage weight of Southern GDP on the total of Italy has decreased from just over 24% to 22%, while GDP per capita has always remained around half that of the North. ; in 2020 it was equal to 18,200 euros against 34,300 euros in the North-West and 32,900 euros in the North-East. According to Confcommercio, in the last 25 years, the reduction in employment, as a consequence of the loss of population (especially young people, -1.6 million), and long-term deficits – in particular excess bureaucracy, widespread illegality, infrastructural shortages and lower quality of human capital – have, in fact, determined a continuous and progressive decline in the GDP produced by the South, further widening the gaps with other areas of the country. However, in 2020, the impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the South was more contained than in the other areas of the country that suffered most from the blocking of production activities during the pandemic (GDP -8.4% against -9, 1% in the North compared to 2019).
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