“L’Italia non è un Paese per giovani” — “Italy is no country for young people” — is an all too common catchphrase across the political spectrum, from left to right.
The consensus among the Italian youth is clear, too: Italy is no country for them. As polls show, four in five young Italians think that they would be better off living in another country. In the past decade, a net total of 243,000 aged 25-32 have left their homeland in search of better living conditions. To explain this exodus, many point to the high unemployment rate. However, the lack of employment opportunities does not paint the full picture. Instead, this widespread youth discontent — left unchanged by recent reform efforts in the labor market — is fueled by the ongoing plight of young workers in Italy. Even for those youth who do find employment in Italy, the living conditions remain dire.
Although young Italians continue to face a higher unemployment rate compared to the EU average, there has been a downward trend in the past decade. Reform efforts in the wake of the 2008-2014 economic crisis focused on stimulating employment by introducing more flexibility in the labor market. Youth unemployment fell from a whopping 42.7% in 2014 to 21% in June 2023. The reforms, coupled with more favorable economic conditions, seem to have had their intended effects.
In particular, the Jobs Act of 2014, a package of policies implemented by then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government, overhauled the Italian labor market. To increase flexibility in the job market and incentivize hirings, Renzi’s reform loosened regulations on fixed-term employment and no-fault termination. These policies proved unpopular among voters, and contributed to Renzi’s defeat in the 2018 Italian general election to the populist Five Star Movement. In its attempt to tackle unemployment by reducing worker protections, the Jobs Act failed to address the plight of young Italian workers. In fact, it worsened it.
Faced with low wages, financial and career insecurity, and weak workplace protections, the 5.4 million workers aged 15-34 are bearing the brunt of Italy’s decades-long economic underperformance. These factors, alongside unemployment, paint a fuller picture of the economic predicament experienced by the Italian youth.
The lack of a minimum wage in Italy disproportionately affects young workers, keeping them in a cycle of poverty. In fact, they earn 30% less than their older counterparts. Among workers aged 20-30, the average income is 13,074 Euros ($13,797) for women and 15,278 Euros ($16,123) for men. One in four is at risk of poverty.
Young workers are also disproportionately exposed to career and financial insecurity. By introducing a twofold system, with deregulation only applying to contracts signed after 2014, the Jobs Act had the unintended effect of creating two categories of workers with different levels of protection. Young people hired after 2014 belong to the less well-paid and less protected category of workers. The share of temporary employment among people aged 15-29 has now reached a staggering 38.2% in Italy. Only 5% of workers aged 55-64 were hired under a fixed-term contract in 2022.
By exacerbating economic insecurity for young workers, the Jobs Act has become part of the problem rather than a solution.
Financial insecurity and career instability shape the lifestyle choices that young Italians make. Because of this level of uncertainty, youth have to postpone significant life milestones or give up on them altogether. These include moving out of their parents’ home, buying their own home, and raising a family.
Firstly, young Italians stay with their parents for much longer than other EU countries. While the Swedish leave their parental household at age 19 on average, Italians wait — or, more accurately, have to wait — until they are 30 years old to do the same. Without the chance to secure a stable income, it is simply not affordable to live on one’s own.
The prevalence of flexible, fixed-term contracts among young workers has also resulted in an increased reluctance — or inability — to raise children. By reducing employment protections and exacerbating career insecurity, the Jobs Act worsened the demographic crisis that Italy was already experiencing. The fertility rate fell from 1.37 in 2014 to 1.24 in 2023 — well below replacement level. In a country like Italy, where the average age is 46.5 years — the fifth highest in the world — this could have grave repercussions on the sustainability of the welfare system and the overall economic output in the future.
Inadequate wages, inadequate protections, insecurity: These are the prospects for the young Italians who manage to enter the workforce. Their plight warrants new, more suitable reform efforts by the government.
Our country desperately needs a new way to think about the youth crisis. To address this, the government should focus on improving working conditions; incentivizing new hirings is not enough.
A first step in this direction is introducing a minimum wage. While sectoral collective bargaining covers 80% of contracts, that has failed to solve the problem of chronically low wages. By finally introducing a minimum wage, Italy would join the 22 EU countries that already have one in place. Ensuring adequate wages is not only necessary for respecting the value of work, but it would also give young Italians the means to pursue their life goals.
However, a minimum wage would not be enough to solve the plight of young workers. Economic insecurity is a burden on the youth and on the country as a whole by exacerbating the demographic crisis. To address this unbearable level of uncertainty faced by young workers, the liberalization of the labor market introduced by the Jobs Act must be reversed. The underwhelming increase in employment that the Jobs Act contributed to does not by any means compensate for the insecurity it brought about in the lives of millions of workers.
With the necessary shift in perspective on and approach to the youth crisis, Italy can reverse its fate. It can and must become a country for young people again. Only this way can it country avoid the looming demographic disaster and earn itself a future — a future that can only pass through its youth. To achieve that, it needs reforms — not more deregulation and flexibility, but stronger protections and support for workers of all ages.
