A part time country. In Italy, work has restarted, even if it does not keep up with the pace of GDP. But of the more than 3.3 million new contracts activated, at least one million are part-time. There would be nothing wrong if the choice were made by the worker, instead companies who decide to halve the hours. It is a situation that, according to INAPP, increases gender differences: in the last year and a half almost half of new women have been on part-time contracts, compared to 26.6% of men. In this uncertain framework, explains the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies, the weakness of female positions is also growing: for 42% of women (and only 22% of men) reduced hours are associated with contracts term or discontinuous.
The risks for the recovery
“Reading these data tells us that the recovery of employment in Italy risks not being structural because it is focusing too much on cost reduction through the reduction of hours worked – says professor Sebastiano Fadda, president of Inapp – The” prudence of enterprises ”risks increasing the range of poor workers and the participation and income gap existing between men and women. Driving the Recovery and Resilience Plan should instead be an opportunity to push for the creation of stable jobs, because without the prospect of a gradual stabilization of employment relationships there is a risk of having negative effects on productivity and competitiveness “.
Specifically, explains the analysis, “the female component represents a total of 39.6% of total activations, confirming the consolidated gender gap in employment. Therefore, we are witnessing a lower number of new activations for women than for men in absolute terms, but with a much higher incidence of part time “. This situation, photographs by INAPP, occurs in all types of contracts.
So the sectors
As regards the economic sectors, the new hires of women are lower in absolute value than those of men with the exception of the financial-insurance, real estate and public administration sectors, including extraterritorial organizations. In all cases, however, the share of part-time women is always greater than that of men. Furthermore, in the case of agriculture, commerce, real estate, professional, artistic and public administration, education, health and assistance, part-time contracts constitute the prevalent form of work for women, exceeding the incidence of 50% of the total.
The incentive effect
According to INAP, part time and precariousness are not reduced by the presence of an incentive for hiring. The study shows that «in the first half of 2021, hires with different types of subsidies totaled 780,128, corresponding to 23.5% of total hires. Of the 291,548 subsidized hires of women (corresponding to 22.2% of the total of all female hires), almost 60% were part-time. Of the 488,580 facilitated hiring of men (equal to 24.3% of the total male hiring) only 32.5% are part-time “. In this scenario, Fadda concludes, “the use of concessions to hiring did not lead to a correction of the trend. We continue to find ourselves faced with the well-known gender imbalance, despite the presence of economic or contributory incentives: female recruitment lower in absolute value and with a much higher incidence of part time than the male component. It is necessary to start a reflection on the “improving” and selective role which, starting from this restart phase, should characterize the incentive system. On the other hand, the PNRR is already moving in this direction with its conditionality clauses ”.