In the Regions of Southern Italy, excluding the Islands, in 2021 there were over 501 thousand long-term unemployed, or those looking for work for over a year, between 15 and 74 years, more than those recorded in the whole of Germany. where in all they are 497 thousand: this is what emerges from the latest Eurostat tables according to which if we also look at the islands, the number of this number of potential workforce outside the market for a long time exceeds 758 thousand units. Most of them are people with a low level of education: 639 thousand have at most the eighth grade license.
In the South, one in ten has been unemployed for over a year
According to the survey published by the statistical office of the European Union, the long-term unemployed in Germany represent only 1.2% of the entire workforce compared to 10.3% recorded in Southern Italy: in practice, in the southern regions a out of 10 Italians of working age have been unemployed for over a year. If you look at the unemployed as a whole, those who find it most difficult to re-enter the market are 32.4% in Germany and 64.4% in the South, exactly double. Overall, in our country the long-term unemployed in 2021 were 1 million 364 thousand, an increase compared to the 2020 figure (1.2 million), a year in which with the pandemic many unemployed people gave up looking for work by entering inactivity and in decrease of almost 100 thousand units compared to 2019 (1 million 455 thousand).
In Europe, the long-term unemployed have halved since 2012
Among other things, what is striking is that the Italian figure in stock has remained substantially stable compared to 2012 while the European figure has almost halved with 5.8 million in 2021 compared to 10 million 391 thousand in 2012. In practice, the unemployed for over 12 months in Italy in 2021 are 23.3% of the total in the EU while the employed with 22 million 462 thousand units in 2021 are only 11.37% of the total of those in Europe (197 million 580 thousand). Overall, the unemployed in Italy are 2 million 366 thousand, up on 2020 but down on 2019 (2 million 581 thousand), not necessarily a positive sign because it can also mean a non-return to the labor market of those who retired from inactivity during the pandemic.
In Italy, half of the unemployed are in the South
In the European Union of 27 the overall unemployed increased compared to 2019 (in 2021 there were 14 million 953 thousand) as well as in Germany (1.53 million compared to 1.37 in 2019) while in the South and in the Islands they decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period. In the South and in the Islands the unemployed are over 1 million 168 thousand, about half of the total in Italy (2.366 million). As mentioned, the main part of the long-term unemployed in our country is made up of people with a low level of education (639 thousand have at most a middle school diploma) while 125 thousand have at least a three-year degree (including 62 thousand in the South and in the Islands) compared to only 83 thousand in the whole of Germany.